birds of a feather flock together

Birds of a feather flock together, the grown-ups say, 
but they don't say why. 
Like seeks like, of course, 
we are less likely to be hurt by those who understand.  

Form some identity, the grown-ups sigh their grown-up sighs, 
and I want to scream how? 
I sit at a lunch table and each friend is like me, 
we all know the same jokes, the same old routine, 
we know that our laughter is not mockery but solidarity. 
I get that. They won't, but we do. 

Birds of a feather flock together, 
and they're safer, less predators against them, 
and children learn to huddle in groups that will not turn against them, 
learn to choose friends that know why they cry and why it's quiet. 
Birds of a feather flock together, 
so if you want us to stop, 
first promise us that we will be safe when we are different. 

No? Okay, I'll stay. 

(It's safer this way.) 

yejunee

FL

18 years old

More by yejunee

  • ouroborous

    the snake is hungry 

    so the snake will eat 

    and eat it does, chewing, gnawing, 

    and will you ever notice, little thing, 

    that it is your own tail 

    you are swallowing? 

     

  • abalone

    from salt and foam and scales 

    steal the hearts of stone 

    nacreous shells, dying husks, 

    the honey-sweet flesh that once 

    clung to its bones 

    to die of thirst. 

  • eschatology

    meet me at the end of the world 

    the space between firestorms and tsunamis 

    across the acid oceans 

    and here, where the rot 

    has begun to reclaim the cities at last.