I call to the shamed

I call to the shamed and you think and you feel

You are alone and you think and you feel

You are not worthy you are broken

And you shame yourself for feeling shame

It’s a cycle and the world abuses you

Then the people who abuse people they abuse you

And you shame yourself for being abused

And sometimes someone like me comes along

Singing a happy song an ode to life

Singing I love you and what you are

Come play with me and be real be yourself

You are all you have to be

And the beauty of you

You are real and I call to you

And sometimes you hear all this

And you feel more alone and you feel you will never

You will never feel the way I feel you will never

Ever see you the way I see you or me

And hearing me say it is shaming you too

But how can you say this

When the people like me so obviously mean well

And you might even think we are right

But it cannot stop the way you feel

This is real and I call to you

The shame is not forever and

While I don’t think the content is true I know

That the feeling is real and valid and lasts as long as it will

And I even know what it means what it is like

And I’ve sung that song before and before the freedom came

I knew the fear that kept the shame and this is how I know

How to remember that sometimes even my love

Feels like a reason for shame and pain

And I see you and I know it and for all the hurt there is

My heart hurts too and I remember and I wish for you

For the knowing to overcome the pain and shame

For our beauty to outshine the harms of abjection

We are real and I call to you

Love, 

Ib