it’s easy to say that prejudice is gone

when you’re the one with the privilege 

when you’re dressed up in suits and ties

or loose hoodies and jeans

(your casual armor)

do you look at the seams? 

machine-sewn, hidden away

dismissed as the ugly by-product

of creation

thin thread is all that holds you together

and you don’t even notice

some people have to sew their own seams

put themselves back together

again and again

prick their fingers with needles 

bleed into the fabric

and then here you come with your little barbs

your jokes, your offhand comments

like seam rippers

those tiny tools with two prongs 

and the sharp crescent edge between

like the webbing between finger and thumb

the thing about those blades is that

they don’t cut the hands that wield them

but when you slip one under tight stitches

they fall apart

just 

like 

that

think about this the next time

someone blames you for cutting them: 

just because you don’t feel the blade

doesn’t mean it isn’t there.