Moonwalker

My family had always told me to be wary of those whose eyes had been

Battered from looking to longingly at the moon on colds wishing for the healing

of the bruises on their hearts battered by the institutional marginalization

Of a society that has consistently told them that they had no place

In the rays of the sun

They didn't know I was one

Of the moonwalkers

Of the dayfearers struck dumb by the brilliance of a star withheld from them

Knowing the isolation enforced from within and without when confronted with the 

presence of majority rules put in place because the majority rules

The pulpit, the schoolyard, the business sector, the political parties

That we must conveniently hear about through the grapevine because our

Invitations conveniently get lost in the hate mail

Do you know what it's like to have your name branded in a burn book

Because you love someone who has the same pieces as you and your told 

Time and time again that you could never fit

The feeling of never asking for a prom date because 

Best case scenario you'll end up on a pity date with the girl everyone thinks

Is your girlfriend anyway

Worst case scenario you'll end up with a black eye marking you as the boy whose 

Mirrors break a little too easily when he hears the word faggot

Walking on pieces of shattered glass trying to keep the idea of self concept alive

Underneath the unconvincing production of heterosexual mimickry

I will never forget the day you said you were gonna kill me 

When the secret pixelated out the graveyard of hastily deleted internet histories

And google searches

I was still your breed but somehow I didn't smell the same 

This is for the boys who cry themselves to sleep at night thinking they

Can drain the gay away 

This is for the girls whose idea of love is undermined by society's patriarchal

preoccupation to turn their intimacy into entertainment

Life is yours

This is your anthem

When the pulpit calls you an abomination

Life is yours

When the schoolyard bully screams sissy or dyke

Life is yours

When you feel like your floodgates are gonna overflow

Because the earthquake of your anxiety told 

the tsunami of your grief to surge with more 

Spirit than you think yours can handle

Life is yours

Life is yours

Life is yours

When grasping for hope has broken your fingers

Remember that suffering is only pain that lingers

When you want it to

When it's easier to wallow in the cesspool of your own defeat

Remember that your victory is just above the surface

Waiting for you to break it in

And clam the life that is yours

Even if it exists on the dark side of the moon

Being able to navigate the ancient depths of the craters

Will mark you as a a full-fledged moon walker

To those just beginning to find their way