The Liberator

by Miguel Velasquez

December 7, 2021

An act of mercy towards you

Is my composure and humility

You see, as you humiliate me

My heart composes compassion and love

l was only in your military-style shoes,

Innocent bystanders were like flies I shewed

Your podium or tower was my street or stoop

Your green attire was my baggy jeans

Your badge was my brandana hanging

I was once transformed

Brainwashed by the rewards

And rejection of the negative enforcements

Becoming what I practiced,

The oppressed becoming the oppressor.

Escaping by subjecting my subjects

To subjection. I didn't understand

That I was a prisoner

Long before my cage and oppression

Bound by resentment, trauma, and pain.

But now I’m free

So now I can look on you

With the eyes of empathy

You are no longer the oppressor

But the oppressed, and I,

I am your guide to freedom.

As you see the irony that baffles you,

That stops the cruelest in their tracks

Someone in a cage with liberation

That exceeds those free physically

So my kindness, my humility

Isn’t to mock you

Nor is it false, but rather understanding

From one who too, was oppressed.