Ashes, Ashes (Manifesto Poem)

Fire.

Their friend against words.

Their defiance against free speech.

Against losing their influence.

Against losing their hold with religion.

Against losing the numbers that made them powerful.

Words tower over control.

They are our armor against the world.

Sometimes the reason we want to live.

Sometimes the reason

we don’t want to die.

With words you can speak what you want.

But to them, only their words mattered.

And they decided to take

what we loved

and burn it to ashes.

They burned away the very skin of our armor.

Slowly peeling away.

Ripping apart our souls.

It made us weak.

But it made us stronger.

And words

truly speak what cannot be said.