If you want to know if people love you,
strip yourself of all lustre, rizz and fanfare,
like the trees shed their leaves in autumn,
so naturalness lays the human heart bare.
If you want to know if people accept you,
be yourself right from the very start,
not from the middle and not at the end,
your truth will expose the truth in their heart.
If you want to be free of pressure in your life,
tell people your truth as early as you can;
once they know and accept you as you are,
you can then live freely as your own human.
If you want to know how you really are,
remove your mask and exhibit your true self.
From people’s reactions over time you will honestly know
whether to change, or to continue to be, yourself.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Poems from the inner river