They say, “It was just a joke.”
But jokes don’t follow you home.
Jokes don’t sit heavy in your chest
when you look in the mirror
and wonder if your skin
is a target.
History lives in the body.
In the way shoulders stay tense.
In the way voices soften
to seem “less threatening.”
But so does power.
Power in braids twisted like crowns.
Power in laughter that refuses
to shrink.
Power in surviving
what was meant to erase you.
You are not a struggle.
You are survival
walking.
Kids Help Phone (KHP) is honoured to share creative content submitted by youth from coast to coast to coast as they Feel Out Loud with us. We thank the Feel Out Loud Community Creator of this piece for their contribution to youth mental health and well-being in Canada. For more information on the Feel Out Loud Community Creator Space and / or how you can submit your own creative content for possible publication, you can visit the submission page.
