Please don’t be mean to me
Don’t shut me out.

Please be kind to me
Don’t blame me
for all this pain about

Please give me a chance
to dance
to different drums
in dialects dissonant,
unknown.

Bless me with a hug
and not a sharpened shout.

Look me in the eye
and tell me
I am worth your time
in sacred space
here free of fear
in night’s angry doubt-filled place.

Please embrace this dignity,
don’t be mean to me,
Take love’s fearsome risk
in vast integrity;

Please, please don’t shut me out…
Invite me in.