NaPoWriMo.net’s prompt (what haunts/hunts you) + @beausia’s form (ooreio) = today’s poem. Reminder that the title is meant to be read ahead of each stanza.

xo, adrienne

Haunted

by the memory of who I was

when a real smile came easy

 

by the way my body felt

running, racing as an athlete

 

by the headlines and the relentless

onslaught of violence

 

by the way my identity

will always paint a target on my back

 

by the idea that this is

as good as it gets

 

Hunted

for the profits that can be wrung

from my hard earned labor

 

for the approval that they’re

one of the ‘good white people’

 

for the attention demanded

by every worthy cause

 

for the dreams that I dream

to be claimed and credited to someone else

 

for the love that I give

that bleeds freely until it’s gone