One thing means another thing
Is the way of the world it seems.
It swings the pendulum right
Into confusion.
It stretches at the
Hidden meanings.
I am autistic.
And I didn’t get it.
Why say what you didn’t do?
But I know, I know now,
Who you want to fool.
It is so easy.
But I know, I KNOW
It now like I know my skin
That every time I hear them say
PROTECT THE CHILDREN,
I'm talking to someone who's unsafe.
Unsafe for the children
They so proudly parade for.
Unsafe for the mouths
They never feed, just close.
Unclothed
Without basic dignity.
Unhomed
Behind the front door.
As soon as I hear
PROTECT THE CHILDREN
I know that's not
What they are here for.
Your children are the power structures.
Your children are the lies you want to uphold.
Your children are the prayers
For which you sold
Your actual children out.
Your children are the closet
That is screaming and bleeding out.
Fuck.
You don’t fight for the rights of your children.
You don’t fight for the tools they can use to protect themselves,
Or the safety they need to come forward.
No you let them starve and feel hunger.
Where is your attack on the churches?
On the politicians bringing child labour back?
Where is your fight to stop the child marriages?
Where are the morals you say that WE lack?
But you defend known abusers.
You offer up your children to the arms
Of still being harmed
And you do not believe them.
Are you not the same ones
Who throw their queer children
On the streets? To fend for themselves?
If this is defending your children,
You are bad bad bad at what you do.
Here is the F for Failure
You clearly deserve.
Pathetic.
Breathe.
Just breathe.
Every time I hear Protect the children.
I see in you the faces of the people
Who said my family was bad
For abandoning my father.
Sad sad sad, he was a sad man
And a good man and a pious
Man and proper man and he
Must be a good father man if
He gave my rebellious ass a
Shelter man, why reject the man,
He must not be such a bad man
Cause he seemed nice and
Was nice to them.
Just because his fists did not fly in your direction,
Did not mean they stayed at his side.
Just because you weren’t here for the ride
Doesn’t mean you can gaslit my experience.
God I hate the idea of stranger fucking danger,
You rather believe the idea of a fantasy phantom
Than your children who said it was their uncle,
The youth pastor and you know what?
I am done.
You don’t care, you don’t.
You want to easily tie up an idea that won’t.
You tell lies that make you feel like a hero.
But protect the children
Is reject the children
Is deflect by using children
Is detect who will remain your children
And who won’t
Is detest the children
Who do not fit the mold.
All I hear
Is your pounding fear
Your children might be queer
Drumming away in my ears.
God forbid they might get the chance
To chose to be happy.
To be accepted as they are.
Shocking.
You’re so afraid of your children
And who they might become.
A son must always be a son,
And never the sun,
As long as you only talk about my family, my community,
And never the actual harm that has been done?
I will see the lies in protect the children,
And I will skip you by.
You’re worth nothing more now,
Than a footnote on another black
Page in the history books we buy.
