for luv’s sake

i pretended to look away

but i couldn’t

i pretended it wasn’t there

but it was

i pretended i could do something different

but i didn’t

i pretended i could be a different person

for them

for me

for us

but i failed

i pretended i could stay

but i ran away

i made all these mistakes

because i’m human

but i can’t pretend that human life doesn’t matter

even if someone’s politics are different from mine

even if someone’s religion is different from mine

even if someone looks different than me

i can’t pretend to be compassionate

i can’t pretend to be empathetic

if i don’t let go of the part of my identity

that makes me blind to human suffering

because the more i pretend to be like them

the less i am like me

and the less i can recognize the humanity in all of us

for luv’s sake, let’s recognize what we all are

humans, first

before ideology

before politics

before illegal

before legal

because i just can’t pretend any longer

i just can’t live in a world of make believe

i must face the pain, not escape it 

and finally i will see

that we’re more alike than different

because we’re all human beings