It never hurt to be queer until

you made it burn like a brand

on my skin in that bar.

 

When you let bullets loose like

kisses on bare skin onto 

the bodies of those who I will

never claim to know - and yet

I loved them like my brothers

and my sisters because they were.

 

I taste their blood on my tongue 

when I kiss my girlfiend in public.

The truest of soldiers, martyrs who died

while I continue this quiet 

sacred act of my defiance.

 

I was on my way to Disney World

when 49 people who loved

just like I do were murdered.

 

I have never felt the hate 

of a hate crime in my gut like I did when

I cried under that too white castle

called my mother

asked her how someone could 

want me to die so badly without

knowing my name she said

"I don't know."

 

All anyone can tell me 

is they don't know.