{"id":27729,"date":"2025-02-18T11:56:37","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T06:26:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/?p=27729"},"modified":"2025-02-18T11:56:39","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T06:26:39","slug":"poem-what-we-are-owed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/poem-what-we-are-owed\/","title":{"rendered":"What we are owed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"font-size:16px\">They say we are free,<br>But what is freedom when our bodies are questioned<br>before our voices are heard?<br>When our names are debated<br>as if identity is a matter of opinion?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They call it a misunderstanding,<br>but what is there to misunderstand<br>about hands that take without asking,<br>about silence twisted into consent<br>by those who have never had to be afraid?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some wars are fought with guns,<br>others with laughter that says, <em>boys will be boys<\/em>.<br>With laws that ask what we wore,<br>with whispers that turn blame back onto us.<br>With families who look away,<br>choosing convenience over truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A body is not a battlefield,<br>but tell that to those who treat it like one.<br>To those who call it kindness<br>when they strip away choice.<br>Who rewrite our truths,<br>erase our names,<br>reshape us with their rules<br>until we are unrecognisable<br>even to ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, tell me, what is freedom?<br>Is it the silence after violence?<br>Is it love forced into the right shape?<br>Is it the right to exist,<br>but never the space to breathe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let there be no more wars fought in our names,<br>no more voices erased in the quiet.<br>No more bodies claimed, taken, debated.<br>We rise, loud and unafraid.<br>Our bodies are our own,<br>whole, unbroken, free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right has-small-font-size\"><em>Cover image:  Photograph by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@dallasreedy\">Dallas Reedy<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/bird-spreading-its-wings-NEJFAS1Okho\">Unspash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2026what is there to misunderstand<br \/>\nabout hands that take without asking,<br \/>\nabout silence twisted into consent<br \/>\nby those who have never had to be afraid? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":27777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4644,3401],"tags":[2020,97,511,317,918,135,3912,261,25],"class_list":{"0":"post-27729","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-consent-and-sexuality","8":"category-fiction-poetry","9":"tag-bodily-autonomy","10":"tag-consent","11":"tag-freedom","12":"tag-gender-identity","13":"tag-identity-politics","14":"tag-patriarchy","15":"tag-queering","16":"tag-queerness","17":"tag-sexualities"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27729"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27797,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27729\/revisions\/27797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}