Should I speak up?

Whenever I speak up, into overdrive my inner voice goes

Asking me to make sure I’ve not stepped on anyone’s toes

To try to ascertain if I have not out of turn spoken

Ensure there are no unwritten rules that I have broken

My gender and immigrant status exclude me

From membership of the privileged majority

As long as I modulate my point of view

And show deference to those in majority too

I do fine, apart from facing some condescension

But when I put forward strongly my opinion

Invariably I hear something to put me back

in my place,

Sometimes it is a subtle hint, sometimes a slap in my face

*

I know what some people would say-

That this is my paranoid perception- I hear this every day

It took me a while to recognize the covert discrimination here

I used to chide myself for being dramatic, I would fear

That I had made an error irrevocable

By bringing my opinionated self to the table

But now the power dynamic I comprehend

To state my opinions confidently is my intent