I am a monster.

Everywhere I go, people stare.
Their eyes sharpen like knives.
Slicing through my skin, my name, my past.
A whisper, too loud
"Not like us."

I reach for a seat, but hands pull away.
Invisible walls rising, pushing me out.
Doors slam without a sound.
A world built for some,
Never meant for me.

I speak, and they flinch.
My voice is foreign, my face an echo
Of stories rewritten, erased, and ignored.
They paint me in fear, in shadows,
A villain in a tale I never told.

I was a child once.
Before they named me Other.
Before my skin, my tongue, my home
Became battlefields I never chose.

But a monster is only a monster
When seen through fearful eyes.
Look again—see me.
Not a creature.
Not a curse.
Just human.

Just like you.