As we start to escape
the violence of conformity,
we owe much to those
who first spoke out,
who wouldn’t call it courage
because it was desperation,
because it was the only option
besides soul-death,
because something deeper down
that instinct for survival
(or maybe that’s exactly what it was)
forced them to stand up,
howl out their truth

Who will witness this?
and who will turn
from the smooth and lethal cruelty
that calls itself normality?
Who will sprout up
in the wild, every-which-way
tumbling burgeoning
self proclamation of life?

©Wendy Mulhern
August 9, 2017