It was a great experience...my first time performing a poem I have written in front of an audience, and it was well received. Hope it helps you guys. Sorry:
Sorry, your subdued whispers say
You clandestinely slink away
The words fall from your fallen face
So you won't take up as much space
The universe is infinite
But you think you don't belong in it
So you shrink invisible
To avoid being vulnerable
You wear shame as a sandwich poster
A cast around your heart of plaster
Broadcasting your humiliation
By non-verbal communication
To hide the feelings in your shell
So that no one can even tell
Who you are
You wear shame as a straightjacket
Binding you into a little shame packet
Fettering your arms from expression
Invisibly shackled by your oppression
STOP.
Why do you apologize for blunders
You didn't even cause? I wonder
Dropping sorries like pins for mistakes
That you didn't even make?
It's because your life is an apology
In which you ARE a mistake
Because shame binds your existence
And to you, is caught in your essence
Its awful ugly color pervades
Your identity, you are unmade
And when I speak to you it is shame
That you answer to by name
Oh my dear
Shame can be written in blood
For all I care
But you, you are a flower bud
Exploding with the brilliance of color
Each stroke touched by the paintbrush of another
Don't apologize for your life
There is no need to be contrite
or penitent for the air you breathe
or abashed for your heart's beat
You are not a blot or a stain
But rather the connection of each vein
And sinew is a masterpiece painting
The master has been maintaining
You can uncurl from your ball
Blossoming, beautiful, standing tall
Bursting into millions of shapes
And leaving us to stand and gape
At the beauty of your own self
Which you own, take it down from the shelf
Be confident, hold your head high
Because you are worth it, own the sky
