Incompatibilities:
To understand why, why I’ve always been filled with
This noxious existential dread
Why this body has always been a discomfort to me
How easily I dissociate from my physical experiences
Or worse, internalize them deeply
A prisoner in my own flesh, my ribcage
Holding prisoner a heart that doesn’t even
Really understand that it is beating
My mind is a quagmire of words and stories told to me
In confidence from friends and friends of friends
Causeless, I can do nothing more than listen
You say that you would fight to defend your culture –
I’ve never felt I’ve had much culture
My accent too foreign even in a land French was brought to
In a grand sweeping first foray into colonialism
My ties to the English less than generous
The vaguest hints at Métis and Acadian culture I
Know nothing about for a multitude of reasons I don’t yet fully grasp
You say that you’re afraid of _________________, and I say
You’re conflating political stances with the practice of religion –
These are very different, and you must be careful
Not to hate individuals along with an ideology
You have no grounds to prove they share
You’re intimidated by the concept of privilege
But you should understand that you ARE privileged
You have white privilege and cis privilege and male privilege and straight privilege and able-bodied privilege and upper-middle-class privilege and religious privilege
And acknowledging this doesn’t mean apologizing for it
It means understanding the ways in which you and I are advantaged
And understanding how the words you use
Are twice as damaging because you represent a majority group on every count.
April 14th 2017
Northern demoiselle 