Christen Foster Poet Free verse

Un-judged Where Nothing is Measured

They look at you?like a headline.?Like a mistake.?Like a warning label printed in red.
They measure your worth?in followers,?in figures,?in how well you fold yourself?into something palatable.

And their eyes—
oh, their eyes—
are scales.
Weighing your skin,
your scars,
your syntax,
your survival.

Society is a courtroom?with fluorescent lighting.?It hands out sentences?for the crime of being different.?It cross-examines your joy.?It objects to your grief.?It sustains its own assumptions.
But then—
?there is the forest.
And the forest does not care?about your résumé.
The trees do not whisper,?“Who are you wearing?”?They whisper wind.
The river does not ask?what you scored?on the standardized test of belonging.?It only asks,?Can you flow?
Stand in front of a mountain—?it will not flinch?at your failures.?It has seen glaciers come and go.?It has watched empires?turn to sediment.
Lie down in the grass?and tell me—?does the earth recoil?at your insecurities?

Lie down in the grass?and tell me—?does the earth recoil?at your insecurities?
No.
It holds you?the same way it holds?the fallen leaf

In nature,
nothing auditions.

The moon does not apologize?for its phases.?It disappears?and still returns whole.

The crooked tree
is not compared
to the straight one.

And you—?you are more tide?than title.?More root?than reputation.
Society builds mirrors?that distort.

Out there,
your laugh is not too sharp.
Your body is not too wide.
Your silence is not suspicious.

Nature offers water—
and in it,
you are not filtered.
You are reflected
in motion,

Out there,?your laugh is not too sharp.?Your body is not too wide.?Your silence is not suspicious.

There is a place?where you are not a project.?Not a problem.?Not a performance.
There is a place?where you are a season—?allowed to change?without explanation.

Because long before?they named you,?ranked you,?reduced you—
you were wild.
And the wild?has never once?asked you?to be anything?other than alive.

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