Prove You Matter

 I was watching videos on youtube

when I came across one about Dr. Oz.
You know, the tv snakeoil salesman
who is now the
Administrator for the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services.

 

In the video, Oz said that
in order to receive health care

people will have to prove they matter.

 

My blood boils
a kettle left screaming
“Prove you matter!” he decrees
As if my pulse, my breath, my bones
Aren’t stitched with stardust
A constellation of survival.

 

Fists clenched like storm clouds
each scar on my skin
a map of battles fought
yet I must audition
for my own existence!

 

My worth isn’t a ledger
no balance sheet for bureaucrats to tally.
I raised children
their laughter a wildfire I kindled
each bandaged knee, a hymn to life.

 

Now that my lungs rattle like rusted gates
I’m told to dance for healthcare’s crumbs.

Every soul is a furnace
we burn bright

no permission needed.

 

A janitor’s calloused hands
are a cathedral of labor.
A homeless man's eyes are
twin moons that hold galaxies.

The silent, the sick, the unseen
Are all gold, no proof required.

Oz weighs hearts on a gilded scale
as if a spreadsheet could measure
the weight of a mother’s sleepless nights
or the spark in a stranger’s smile.

 

I’m a volcano
spitting ash at this farce.
My worth is no checkbox
no flaming hoop to leap through.

My life is a mosaic

cracked tiles of grit and grace
not some clerk’s tally to be erased.

Let them try to cage this truth:
We are rivers, not receipts.

Our value roars like thunder
undeniable, untamed
no proof needed to claim
the right to breathe.