poem turned rant

I had an idea

I wanted to spill all my anger into the page

so why is it always so hard to write 

when I am afraid for my life, how I am turning 19 and going to college, how I hate being quiet, and how all I want to do is destroy everything in my path when I look at that screen and hear their words telling me my body is not my own. Men spit at my existence as if I am nothing more than a tool for reproduction and pleasure, and I don't understand why I'm smarter than half the country and I have not even gone to college. Men deciding guns that kill the innocent are more legal than my womb, black women men kids threatened just because of the color of their skin, my queer friend's afraid history will repeat and they won't have the freedom to be themselves, my fears that I won't be able to get safe birth control and travel without fear. 

I am not the type of person to judge others just based on their choices, 

and yet, 

once my basic human rights are denied, 

I can't help but get angry,

and nothing is more powerful than an angry girl raised to never underestimate her brain, nothing is more powerful than a young woman who knows herself more than anyone else, nothing is more powerful than a girl who knows how to write powerful stanzas and create masterpieces and photograph powerful friendships. 

Nothing is more powerful than a young woman who is unafraid to speak her mind.