Day 22- Lense of Bigotry: A Poem

Digital Art Axton Mitchell in jeans and a gray t-shirt with a transgender pride flag in the center, lays in a field of flowers.


The rights of people 

             Who differ  

from your view of normalcy 

    Or worthiness 

                      are not a political 

debate. 

But for a moment 

         I’ll 

          P

          L 

          A

          Y

                  along 

                      and

                   pretend

I’d waste my time

         Debating  

stripping 

        the people

         of 

Their 

                 Rights  

But first allow 

                 Me to ask you this 

if a specific 

type of person 

                        doesn’t exist

By your own words 

        Why would 

        You 

        waste your 

        time on 

        debating their 

                               rights? 

I’ll beg to be 

The first to say 

                           It’s easier for the likes of 

you 

      To 

      Deny someone’s existence 

before you admit 

You view  

          things with a  bigot lens. 


    Poet’s Note

“Lens of Bigotry”  was written on 1/11/2026 for the moments when people try to dress cruelty up as conversation. Someone who claims a group of people does not exist, yet still wants to debate their right to live, to love, or even to their identity  .

That contradiction is not confusion, it is a strategy.

Denying someone’s existence makes it easier to deny their humanity. Once a person becomes an idea, a category, or a talking point, stripping their rights starts to feel reasonable to those already looking through a distorted lens.

This poem is not here to negotiate anyone’s worth. It is here to expose the trick. To ask why some lives are treated like a hypothetical while others are assumed to be real by default.

If this piece feels uncomfortable, that discomfort is doing its job. It means the lens is being questioned.


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