If You Want to Understand Why I’m Crying
It’s because I can’t protect her
I can’t protect her against
The rising tides of water and hatred
I can’t protect her when
She leaves my arms for school
Where children with spinning compasses
And growing access to lethal weapons and unchecked prejudices
Can penetrate the sanctuary
Of education and innocence
I can’t protect her from
Groping hands and belittling language
Or from symbols crossing like targets
Aimed right for her heart
I can’t protect her from
The walls people will build to keep her out
Or down
Or confined
Or imprisoned
I couldn’t protect her before either
But before I had less to protect her from
Before I had hope that others
Also wanted to protect her
That the village could help me when
She went out into the world alone
Look after her
Hold her close, cover her
Not care about her race or
Ethnicity
Religion
Sex
But now half the village wants to destroy her
Wants to arm the spinning compasses
And protect them, not her, in the law
Justify their platform of hate
And ridicule her right to exist and rebel
The other half has been blind
And complacent
Shrouded in the misconception
That people will prioritize
Goodness over money
Love over power
Compassion over hate
I was blind
I too am to blame
And now there is no protection
No protection
Now I just hope that my cries are heard by others
And understood
Not as whining or pettiness
But as the truth of my protest
A genuine terror for the future
A pain of a mother who
Doesn’t want to cry over something worse
Like the loss of her young daughter’s
Innocence
Or her hopefulness
Or her trust in humanity
Or her life
Now I hope others will see
As I see
That we must change the future
Or she, all the she’s and he’s like her, will be the cost
K.L. Kranes 
November 16, 2016 at 12:45 pm
Significant poetry. I have no idea what it might feel like to let a little one out into a world that you don’t even understand yourself. One day I’ll get it, maybe.
I liked your poem because it was very honest. It made me think a million things, as well. There is an inevitability to your poem. The narrator is going to have let “her” go. There is some solace in this. Your poem made me think that although the world is full of “prejudice”, it only means whoever has to face it will be stronger.
I’ve got this idea. With the internet people are exposed to the maddest, most crazy, most terrifying things, that I never saw when I was young (and I only missed the dawn of the internet by a few years.) This can only make them stronger, don’t you think? Instead of reading and trusting blindly, an educated young person can make their own, deeply informed decisions.
Troubles in reality might be solved by the opportunities awarded to the forming of communities on the internet where you can find solace and happiness.
Anyway. Yes. I like your poem. It made me think about all these things, and have inspired a post I might make in the future, so yeah. Thanks.
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