Responsibility

You are not responsible for
the pain in my toe.

You are only responsible for
the placement of the heel
that is part of the foot that is
on the end of your leg.

You are not responsible for
knowing that this seat is
already taken.

You are only responsible for
moving your coat to the back
of a different chair or possibly even

waiting, with your coat over your
arm until it is your turn to sit.

You are not responsible for
knowing that I am next
in line when you have
just walked in the door.

You are only responsible for
stopping, mid-sentence, when you
realize, because I told you,

that you have jumped the queue.

-LKM

originally posted on April 1, 2014

Note: I wrote this poem during I time when I was working on figuring out what it meant to stick up for myself.  Not to make someone else wrong for their impact on me, but simply to acknowledge that there was an impact, and without acknowledgement, there was a shutting down of my own voice.

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