Speakers Corner and other poems By Robin Doyle Speakers Corner

Look at yourself she said You will know where you belong I sighed The other guy looked at him Be quiet you worship cows I sighed The gurgle voices bounced in my head How can a language Contain so much throat ? I sighed I felt sorry for her We can never return to Tabula rasa If that ever existed in the first place.

Refusal
Right below my sternum A pressure mounts Its anger They walk the streets Proudly bearing their red patches Its a right Cest un droit Yet me I am not good enough For this right.

I Cant
I cant I cant anymore My failures have caught up to me I think its time Im imprisoned by my fear My fear of death I wish I were free Every moment is an agony Knowing the uselessness Of my existence. I hate myself. As the anger mounts in me I rage I wish I could just die But I know that fear will win I fear the hell will be real That I will burn Because of my desire Because of my sloth Because of my inability To use the gifts Dad gave me Dad. Father

Asshole Why did you even bother When at which moment did I even ask you To exist You condemn me to existence And then you punish me Does it give you joy ? Are you happy ?

A suicide note
I have decided to end my sad life. So if you are reading this it means thatI have succeeded. All I want is peace.

I know some people will suffer strife In time I will become another stat I wished for all this lonely pain to cease

I had come to the realization That there is no more hope in existence All the careers that interest me

want a degree in communication work harder ! you advise with persistence Sadly my mental talents failed, see ?

Being a homo having to worry About causing any discomfort Pride for some, others shame of a nation

The customer service makes me weary Senior solitude, only friend my fart A sad inevitable conclusion

The N word
How clich Another pity party By a visible minority poet Writing about the N word

You are right

The first time I heard the N word It hit me like a fist Literally

A bulging shaft of pain Penetrating within my sternum A symphony

I fell back a bit

As heat slowly rose in my body Mostly concentrated on my forehead

Later I sat down to think about it Rationally

Its just the sound knee And Grrrlike a cat Its just a word. two sounds. two syllables Why does it hurt so ? Its played in rap songs.

Silly non-visible minority Let me explain Carefully

Its the hate, the anger That accompanies it The anger that says Youll never be accepted as a valid human being No matter what you do