Purple Shirts

I spent years with an empty wardrobe,

clothes sprawled across the floor,

a complete chaos.

It took months to figure out how to organize that wardrobe.

Eventually, I picked up the shirts and folded them neatly.

I had an organized wardrobe – purple shirts in front.

But they don't know the effort that took.

They don't know what it feels like

when your parents tear all the clothes out of your wardrobe

because the purple shirts shouldn't be in front.

Just showing the black and white ones – purple shirts behind.

They don't know what it feels like

when your community says that purple isn't a color of the rainbow;

I should just put all the purple shirts away,

only the black and white ones matter to them.

They don't know what it feels like

when people you thought you could trust destroy that wardrobe,

trying to turn all the purple shirts into black and white shirts.

They don't know what it feels like

when the education system is so colorblind that

it knows the rainbow exists, but it doesn't say anything about it;

but to them, the rainbow doesn't include my purple shirts anyway.

What they don't know they don't know can't hurt them,

but it certainly hurts me.