Hearts can shatter if beaten down.
Souls can be crushed if pounded.
Judging others isn’t a right.
People should be allowed to live
the life they were intended.
Why is violence the solution
for those who loathe
a culture or religion?
Special nuances making up
each of us are nobody’s business.
Differences afford knowledge.
Opening our hearts and minds,
what a beautiful world…If only.
How drab the vision
outside our windows would look
if we were identical in every minute
aspect of our inner and outer selves.
Your world, My world,
would turn colorless.
Respecting and accepting:
unoriginal, but words repeated
again and again
until the narratives and visuals
transform.
No one deserves to live
beneath a cloud of pretense
in youth or adulthood.
We all should have the freedom
to live within the arms of truth.
I can only imagine how invisible scars
can create hell for the heart.
Love should be universal throughout
and shouldn’t acquiesce temper.
Love should remain the center
of everyone.
But has kindness and compassion
been shoved under the bus?
Injustice equals disgust.

Lauren Scott (c)