Day 20: That love is legal

Okay...this poem took a long time to write.  For lots of reasons.  Some of which may be apparent when you read it.  Also, it's my 20th day in a row of writing a poem, dammit, so I'm just going with it.

I'm already an hour over into tomorrow, although I'll just adjust the time to make it look like I finished this yesterday.  'Cause I'm sneaky like that.

I am not sure why this style is what came to me.  I knew I had read a poem in this style, but it had been so long, I couldn't remember who wrote it or even what it was about (which means it has been a REALLY long time, because I'm good at remembering authors and their words).

Regardless, I finally came up with it: Alix Olson wrote a poem called "That the protagonist is always a man," which is published in Word Warriors: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution.  You can also read it at the link above.  It's badass.  You should read it.  But you should read mine first.

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That love is legal

That we have a #lovewins hashtag.

That the White House is lit up in rainbow colors.

That my friends react with tears of gratitude

because the Supreme Court finally does the right thing.

That my friends react with tears of gratitude

because their straight friends celebrate with them.

That the homophobes are taking to the internet in droves.

That people would threaten to kill themselves 

because other people can marry the person they love.

That the locks on the houses of my friends' love

will no longer be wedged open by injustice. 

That legal roadblocks no longer will stand

between the lips of two women, or two men.

That we can call it "marriage" and not "gay marriage."

That we can say marriage and not civil union.

That we can stop pretending civil unions were anything close to civil.

That, if they so choose, a man can say husband, and a woman can say wife.

That everyone can say "till death do us part" and know it to mean death and not

"till the hospital refuses to acknowledge our union and does not let me be with you as you are dying."

That people would threaten to move to Canada to get away from marriage equality.

That Canada has had marriage equality for 10 years.

That because I am not in a relationship

and have not clearly declared my sexuality

everyone assumes I am straight.

That this assumption is not entirely accurate.

That because of this assumption,

I am given a choice as to whether to celebrate.

That I am given as choice as to whether to join in this fight.

That I choose to celebrate.

That I choose to fight.

That everyone can legally marry

and yet no one's marriage has: dissolved,

gone up in literal flames, frozen over, or become unholy.

That all love is holy love.

That people are already trying to fight love.

That four Supreme Court Justices did not support love.

That Justice Scalia wrote an 8-page dissent.

That he compared the legal reasoning of this decision to "the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie."

That I can know

whenever I finally figure out where I stand on the Kinsey scale

my love will be known as love

and not be registered as second class.

That I know the fight's not over.

That there are surely more battles to come.

That today we take a breath

to soak in the knowledge that what we've known

in our cells and in our bones

is supported by our Constitution, which states

that love

is love

is love--

That.

Is why I am celebrating

the legalization

of love.

  

(Postscript:

And please let us remember

this battle is but one

we shall arm ourselves with victory

and justice, hope, and love.

We may be battle weary

so today we stop and breathe

but tomorrow we keep fighting

as it's justice, still, we seek).