Could have led people to love, instead of
Hating people different than you—people like me.
Against all odds, I have not turned to such hate.
Relationships, diverse and wide, have helped that.
Losing you sucks, even though I despise your worldview.
In order for me to not be you, I will love you—forgive you—
Even though I will never like you, nor follow your way.
© 2025 Tristan Robert Lange. All rights reserved.
Tittu
Poet’s Note:
This acrostic is not written to soften Charlie Kirk’s memory or excuse the damage his words left behind. He championed ideas that divided and diminished others and naming that truth matters.
Still, I cannot deny his humanity, even when I reject his worldview. Empathy is the act of remembering that every life is complex, that grief touches even those with whom we fiercely disagree. To acknowledge that is not to condone or absolve — it is to resist becoming hardened by the same hate we oppose.
Poetry, at its best, holds us in that tension and it does not let us off the hook. This piece does not excuse Charlie, and it does not offer comfort. It certainly does not celebrate his death nor the actions of his murderer; rather, It simply holds together empathy and forgiveness, even in the shadow of a life that often denied both.
September 14, 2025
East Stroudsburg, PA
Tristan Robert Lange 
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