My mother used to warn me “Your mouth will get you killed” I asked too many questions And never learned the art of sitting still Teachers wrote home constantly About my “attitude” at school I said if honesty was dangerous Then maybe grown-ups built their worlds too fragile for the truth Free anyway That’s what words are supposed to be Everybody wants protection now Until somebody disagrees I don’t know what they’re talking about It was free anyway One man called me heartless For laughing at his speech Funny how demanding worship Always hides behind the language of “be kind to me” A woman cried on television Said disagreement felt like harm Like hearing another viewpoint somehow physically bruised her spirit and left permanent marks Funny how fear learned softer language And still found ways to control the room They brought lists of grievances Like receipts from wounded years Every sentence weighed and measured For traces of discomfort someone somewhere might hear I watched old friends become censors Wrapped in therapeutic phrases Turning human contradiction into violations requiring public payment and confession stages Free anyway That’s what thoughts are supposed to be Now everybody whispers carefully Like neighbours during secret police I don’t know what they’re talking about It was free anyway One boy said my sarcasm Made him doubt himself for weeks I nearly apologized Then remembered he’d spent years mocking everybody else for speaking weak The loudest voices in the room Always claimed they felt unsafe Strange how often moral panic becomes a very profitable kind of social currency to trade Some people build identities from bruises Then panic when healing threatens the throne I’m not cruel for disagreeing I’m not violence wearing lipstick And silence isn’t virtue Just because frightened people suddenly market it as wisdom So let them write their angry letters And hold tribunals over jokes The world survived much darker things Than uncomfortable opinions spoken by imperfect folk Free anyway Even when they try attaching chains To every careless phrase and human flaw And every complicated thing I don’t know what they’re talking about It was free anyway
