The Freedom Of Being Unseen (A Letter To The World) Poem by Martins Akhoeneto

World, I no longer owe you proof
that I am worthy of my name.
I have spent too long carrying my heart
to doors that never learned to open,
asking indifferent eyes to witness
what was already true within me.

I will not spend my peace
buying approval from strangers,
nor pour my strength into mouths
that listen only
to find a fault they can carry away
and call it truth.

There is a quiet debt in needing applause,
a coin paid from the treasury of the soul.
Each time I explain myself
to someone intent on misunderstanding,
I place my freedom in their hands
and call that surrender connection.

Let the world misunderstand.
Let it build its small houses of judgment.
I will not become a prisoner
of every window that looks my way.
Not every eye deserves a key
to the rooms of my becoming.