Is This the Future?

No matter how far I run

how loud I scream

how hard I try

I'm never fast enough

never loud enough

never good enough.

Because even if I am,

I'm not.

I'm heard but not listened to,

just background noise

for men to drown out

while they live in authority

like they always have,

in a time where

it's probably going to stay that way

for a while

even though it's

2025.

I plead

and beg

for equality.

I ache for it

I scream for it

I eat, drink, and sleep for it

I breathe for it

and I wake up every morning

wondering if something has changed

but forget that I'm breathing the air

of a country where I don't have equal rights,

even though it's

2025.