Challenge
Write about the concepts of intolerance (unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behavior that differ from one's own) and coexistence (the state or condition of living in harmony despite different ideologies or interests). Take a situation from your own life experience and tell way and how you chose to exercise one or both of these two life paths. $10 prize Non-fiction. Any format.
Mass tagging results on automatic disqualification.
Voice
My voice is soft. I like quiet spaces, calm, making myself small.
I do not hiss or scratch when trouble arrives and curls against my door.
But your ‘not me’ is loud and heavy now, impossible to carry.
Burdensome, when it is clear you will not shoulder mine.
a scream won’t open closed ears,
a whisper at night:
me too.
A yellow jacket with snap buttons, neon glasses printed on old cotton,
tennies that talk when in motion,
pants tight around my ankles.
Am I missing pieces of myself,
important and irreplaceable?
Your voice, a noisy mantra:
I am not a monster.
That was not the question.
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