The Name I Gave You
Why fashion a label I never claimed,
Why speak a name that is not my own?
Do you not feel the weight of your tone,
Or see the hurt your judgment inflamed?
A leader’s voice, loud and profound,
Grants others license to tear and wound.
With careless words, you set the stage,
For others to bind me with unseen chains.
I stood before you, unguarded, sincere,
Offered my name for you to hear.
What shadowed doubts made you discard,
The truth I shared, my soul unbarred?
Have you traced the scars your words might make?
Or paused to wonder what wounds could wake?
Respect is a gift I offered you first,
But your words, like stones, have reversed the verse.
So I ask, in kindness, in fairness too,
To see me as I am—not as you construe.
The name I gave you is mine to proclaim,
Honor my truth, and speak it the same.
