I will always be a whisper in the wind
A passing shadow
A time that you will never forget
Space between two walls
A memory that you will never chase but will follow you
until the end of time

I am like a light that seeps through the floors and cracks the wood to be seen
I am a yet a whisper of a loud voice
The echoes that you remember that will seek you out

I am exposed and imposed

I am savagely picked apart through time

I sleep with your brothers your sister’s your wives your husbands
kept in secret for fear to be revealed

I am ostracized criticized an abomination
A fag, queer, sissy, lesbian, gay, transgender, bisexual
poof, poofter, drag queen – I am out of breath

I am meant to understand your way, your meanings your religion
yet
I am not your You

I shine
I am strength reclaimed and unclaimed by disease
I am kept alive, and death returns my favor to be remembered by peers

I am the struggle

I am measured as a hero

I fly below ground, but above ground, I have risen

I will STAY

I am the colors of the rainbow weathered by every storm
I return born of who I am
I can be nothing less than you may wish

I am married, divorced, separated, single.

I cross lines for I cannot be established as sectional
I am solitaire and camp

I am numbers growing, continuing to spread
count on me to be unstoppable in your
present past and future

I am Fifty and Beyond, Surpassed and off into the Distance

I am LGBTQ
And I AM

James Pearson 6.19.19