Don’t Judge Me

Don’t Judge Me

Dec 11

Poetry is cathartic.  As such, much of the poetry I’ve written over the years relates to specific times and incidents that either made me happy, hurt my feelings, or generally sparked my interest in some way. I wrote the following poem back in the ’90’s when a friend of mine had hurt me terribly by judging a personal family issue I was having without knowing all of the facts. You see in America you can have just about anything in the world wrong with someone in your family and the reaction is generally at minimum sympathetic and at best empathetic.  This is true of most things with the exception of mental illness.  I have a direct family member plagued as such and the burden of it has had varying degrees of effect on me throughout both my childhood and as an adult.  What makes it that much harder is that folks who haven’t experienced this kind of issue are very confused by it and really just don’t understand it.  They are also very afraid of it.  Mental illness is hard to diagnose, hard to treat and in certain cases nigh onto impossible to cure.  This “friend” decided to pass along the details of an attempted suicide in my family that caused a completely unnecessary amount of ruckus at an extremely bad time. The very personal details of my trauma floated about the college campus where I attended like wildfire.  At the time, it really bothered me.  Responses varied from avoidance, to snide comments, to a sort of pitiful look accompanied by whispering that I think was probably worse than anything.  No one enjoys being pitied. Especially a take life by the horns type of person like me.  Now, I’ve learned to accept the fact that in a lot of cases, people react in weird ways to things they fear.  Even though the incident was hurtful, I understand now that she probably had no idea the impact of her words.  We were young.  Here’s what I had to say to her….

Don’t Judge Me

by Angela Fardo

Don’t judge me….

The reputation ruined may be your own,

And the seed of discontent already sewn.

Don’t judge me….

I am not completely how I seem.

A broken heart is shattering the dream.

Don’t judge me….

You see yourself behind the eyes of others,

And hatred’s strong when coming from a brother.

Don’t judge me….

Gossip carries discord like the tide.

Can’t you ever keep your pain inside?

Accept me….

What you think affects me can’t you see.

Won’t you let me be just who I be?

Love….

What a perfect social grace.

The thought just put a smile across my face.