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).
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