Speak in your own voice

I was at a poetry slam in New York and the MC added a rule beyond the usual
No singing
No props
Only three minutes tops

He said, please
Under any circumstances,
Do not take off your clothes

And I thought how common is that here that they have to make a rule about it?

And then I thought about all the times I kept my shirt on during sex
How you asked me to turn the lights off so I wouldn't see the stretch marks on your legs

I saw poets wearing scarfs to hide the scars of nooses on their necks

And I didn't need to see the bullet wounds to know
That it means something different here when your dad never comes back from buying cigarettes

I saw a woman get up and spit a verse in Hebrew
About how she was stabbed at a pride rally in Israel
She got the lowest score of the evening
But the MC praised her choice to speak in her own voice

Instead of changing it for points

Which was why I didn't understand how the winner was an old white man
Doing a piece on police brutality

I couldn't tell if it was the truncheon round their necks
Or my hands down their throat
That made kids choke
I can't breathe