The Audacity of Existing
Poetry & Prose by Britt Wolfe
Imagine believing your neighbour’s joy
is a personal attack.
That the barista’s pronouns
are a threat to your mortgage rate.
That two women holding hands
could destabilize an economy
already crumbling under greed.
Imagine mistaking freedom
for the right to control everyone else’s.
Calling it morality,
while voting to feed your children
less education,
less healthcare,
less hope.
This is the great political illusion:
you’re not defending tradition—
you’re protecting the cage
they convinced you was a throne.
A trans kid isn’t your crisis.
A drag queen reading stories
isn’t the apocalypse.
The end of civilization
was not two men getting married—
it was you,
applauding your own poverty,
because the politician on TV
hates the same people you do.
You will trade your pension for prejudice,
your safety for spite,
and call it righteousness.
You will drown in rising seas
still shouting about bathrooms.
Here’s the truth they hope you never learn:
none of this is political.
Who someone loves,
who they are,
how they walk through the world—
that’s not ideology.
That’s humanity.
And if your freedom depends
on limiting someone else’s,
it isn’t freedom at all—
it’s fear,
dressed up as faith,
fed to you in bite-sized slogans
so you’ll forget
you were meant to be free too.
KEEP MY WORDS ALIVE
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