Best Labels Poems

You tell me that my love is not real
You tell me that my love needs to be more concrete
More box that I should fit into
More small manageable pieces
That are easier to swallow
But I can't just do that
When explaining my sexual orientation
It is so easy to...

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Victor or victim
Survivor or miserable wraith
All those labels, I have to prove something.
Feeling horrible is a sin, 
Having survived hell is something to be proud of?

Let me tell you something
As a small child I was abducted
I survived the road to hell; hell itself, and back...

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goth on the rocks

                              around the watering hole

        ...

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she reaches behind the smokescreen

of her sunken eyed curtain veils

films of tears void of translucence

stoke reminiscent ashes that trace

another blinding thick-skinned defeat

hidden by camouflage and smears

touched up campaigns of bravery


her retinas a web of hallucinations

illusion delusion cataracts and dreams

stirred but not entirely shaken as

she reaches...

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Labels, 2010
V. Ortiz Vazquez

Girl, teenager, young adult, woman
Hispanic, Latina, Puerto Rican
Sister, aunt, godmother
Lesbian, woman of color
How important are these labels?
Why use them to define myself?
Better, use to be boxed within brackets
Brackets many times use to oppress me and those a like
Box me
Reduce at time, close...

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When buying milk and bread I almost dropped dead
Because when I looked at the labels they read
The bread may contain wheat
And topping that feat
Was that the milk may contain milk, so it said...

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Only if I allow you-how to find the answer
we must enter a trance first. 
Run backwards in circles and sing that one song and dance.
That they speak of through speakers that pierce through virgin ears.
You are sure you know who you personally refer to as...

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are given early...
not permanent less we latch 
onto like breast milk...

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You don't know me or the life I lead.
But you make up these name's to call me.
My hair dyed pink and my jeans tight;
You look at me with discontent and hateful spite.
I don't wear American Eagle or those Ugg boots,
but that doesn't give you the...

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Would that we stamp these words
On foreheads, as soon as an infant slides
Through the open birth canal:

White privileged
Underprivileged
Poor
Rich
Thug
Fat
Terrorist
Hater
Lover
Etcetera etcetera

O how innocent, and pure
A sweet baby!
God has only labeled us:

Loved!

When the world is churning in cyclonic fashion,
When earthquakes threaten to tear us apart,
Can we grab each...

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Don’t label me,
I’m not a freak
I’m not an anorexic that doesn’t eat
I’m not a “Lesbo”
I’m not a ****
I’m not an emo girl that cuts and cuts
I’m not a prep
I’m not a Goth
But please don’t go thinking I’m soft
I’m not a geek,
I don’t attention seek
So, what...

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Please tell me why it's meaningless,
When a woman is assaulted.
Is it because somehow she must'v asked for it,
Why is she the one who's faulted?

Why, is it more believable, 
When a man says it isn't true?
Even when his friends know,
It's something he would do.

He gets to...

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I could wrap you
In secret
And cling
Like double-sided
Just to keep
Your gift
From prying eyes

But I have
No label
A name, perhaps
But no concept
No complete picture
For the pieces
Of you

Labels
Are for things.
Boundaries.
Pigeon holes.
For just a
Moment
In the journey

We remove them
On arrival
Or when they are
Dog-eared 
Or when they are wrong
Or at least
We should

I...

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Oh flesh of many colors,
brothers all are we,
placing the Holy Spirit
above us on our knees.

No matter what we’re labeled
by those who sell a grace,
when names and slogans start to fly,
be calm and hold your place.

A yearning, kindly human heart
is only satisfied
through service to our Father,
not...

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Labels that lead to hate…will only pain impart…
they will never bring us together…only push us further and further apart. 

When we are consumed by the labels we place on one another it becomes more difficult…more bizarre to see each other clearly…to understand who we truly...

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