I Don’t Engage

I’ve been burned for speaking

by people who claim to fight fire.

They call it accountability,

but it feels a lot like fear —

and I’ve lived through enough of that

to know the difference.

I have been cancelled,

attacked, misread,

each time for daring to think

bigger than their boxes allow.

They mistake silence for guilt,

boundaries for weakness,

certainty for arrogance.

But I know who I am.

My politics are carved into my bones.

I don’t need to perform them

for strangers online.

Some things aren’t up for discussion.

Some things are mine to keep sacred.

I do not engage.

I do not explain.

I do not kneel at the altar

of everyone’s opinion.

I have work to do —

real work,

in care homes,

in poems,

in the small revolutions

that never make the news.

Let them talk.

I’ve seen how small the loudest people are

when the world actually burns.