FRIDAY THOUGHTS: POETRY PROMPT

It’s not that they lost

They’ve had other losing seasons

It’s that they lost to YOU 

That’s the trigger; that’s the reason for 

Code words

Cold words

How easily they’re shouted

Pulled from a tattered arsenal

And expertly imparted

When competence and skill, that you’d think would be applauded

Is face to face with gross entitlement—mis-education 

Sadly, excellence isn’t always admired, or appreciated 

Excellence gets cut off, somehow, and must face humiliation 

It is feared.

It is scrutinized.

It is envied.

It’s criticized 

It is targeted.

It offends sensibilities.

It destroys narratives.

It resurrects worst instincts.

It’s just so hard to give it props in certain circles, methinks

It breaks the brains of some, whose immediate reaction is to insult, demean

Create doubt, redirect attention, cause a scene.

Perhaps you demonstrated skill, practiced, played by the rules, you won

God forbid that you celebrate, or get kudos for what you've done 

Do you not deserve to enjoy a moment of satisfaction, or victory?

To some, you’re not deserving.

Your joy is so unnerving 

You can’t be that good.

You shouldn’t be where “they” are.

Your parade deserves a thunderstorm 

Your triumph needs a scar

The vicious response to competence seems instinctive, almost as if it was taught and drilled, just as effectively as you were taught to be gracious.

You, and your competence must be brought down a peg with age-old, choice words, believed to be effective at wounding you, putting you back into your lowly place, and reminding you who they think you are—or need you to be:

Uneducated 

Angry

Low class

Dangerous 

Disrespectful 

Classless

Uncivilized 

Pompous

Dirty

Violent 

Ghetto 

Inferior

Loud

A n*gger

Who has no right to be proud 

It’s all so exhausting, these tired dog whistles. 

Fired off like strategic, heat-seeking missiles

Aimed until a raw nerve, or the heart is found

Is that the grand plan? To wear you down?

Damage you so that you won't stick around?

To make self- hate and doubts contagious?

It’s all so played-out; it’s simply outrageous 

What IS it about YOU; your competence, that they declare you subpar, and expose the hatred, by which they live, and plant wherever they are?

They pledge allegiance to bigotry, and it oozes from their pores, but, when confronted, they insist they didn’t mean what they swore! 

It’s 2025. Those lies don’t fly anymore.

But yet, a simple loss spawns evil, they insist is quite rare

And when backed against a wall, they’ll swear it ain’t even there!

Is it ingrained; so natural— is it in the air?

Is it so normalized; internalized, that they don’t even care?

Why are some more terrified or offended, by being called racist, than they are by their racist words and deeds that persist, and persist?

Not another ounce of energy should be wasted arguing with anyone, whose existence relies on debasing others for fun.

Let your competence do the talking, dear sisters and brothers. 

Ignore the racket from those who should ask their own fathers and mothers, “What’s the reason why you taught me to have such hatred for others?”

Leave vengeance to its owner, and leave to their own devices, those whose strange disdain of others, (who won’t dim how bright their light is), is poisoning their very hearts, minds, souls.

VRWc2025