Friends, fellows, sisters, brothers—
Lend me your ear.
Your pen.
Your beautiful words.
Writers, paradigm shifters, storytellers—
Those who, in another age, might have been burned at the stake, lobotomized,
or hidden away in a sanatorium for refusing…
Lend me your strength.
Your incantations.
Your neurodivergence.
Beautiful misfits.
Former teenage dirtbags.
Empaths.
I must profess. I must confess.
I fell a little in love with each of you
as you bared your souls,
dusting off thoughts and experiences that had long been tucked away.
Lend me your passion. Your audacity.
Your unapologetic, unparalleled fervor.
Stephanie M. Young, 6/29/26
I loved this so much! We love you too Stephanie <3
Stephanie… wow. The way you have arranged these lines to be as impactful as this program has been on us.. so incredibly impressive. The labels you have allowed us to be given are better than any teachers have been called in the past– even more so, as we helped give them to ourselves. Thank you for this piece. Brava!
This poem is electric! You can have any “incantation” from this “former teenage dirtbag!”
This really hit the nail on the head! I love the incantation line. Perfection!