Law and Order (Confessional)

Bring in the homosexual!

The lawmaker says

In a tone – antiseptic and clinical

Like he’s announcing the onset of cancer

Though with less sympathy

No – none at all.

You stand charged with the crime

Of perverting the natural order

And defiling the sanctity of marriage

Under the laws of God and man

You are allowed a final appeal

Speak now

Or forever

Hold

Your

Peace.

                Friends, Americans, Countrymen: Lend me your ears

                You call me criminal and pervert under the laws of the land

                I call myself a casualty of your policy

                I do not believe in original sin

                I believe that whatever shame seated within my soul

                Is engendered

                Not inherent

                An artifice of hateful, unintelligent design.

                You call me criminal

                But I look in the mirror

                And I see a man who has loved people as hard as they’ve hated themselves

                Realizing the heart is too risky a fuel to burn.

                You call me criminal

                But when I turn on the T.V.

                I feel like a refugee

                Running from violence like the blood and water

                That ran from the side of your Lord.

                You call me a criminal

                But I feel like a historian

                Retelling the stories of boys

                Locked in the skins of their fathers

                Possessed by the need for approval

                Often times – they claw themselves out
                 Fingers down to crooked bone

                Often times – they hang themselves
                Necks hanging like crooked fruit

                From the branches of their family trees

                Nooses tied by the sins of their fathers.

                What you call a sin

                That breeds only contempt

                Is what I call a bridge

                Closing the gaps of compassion

                Between me and every other victim

                Of the scapegoat slaughter you offer

                On the altar to your God of love

                You carry as an ark of comely hate

                Rebuilding the ivory tower

                With the ivory bones

                Of the tragically impressionable youth

                You claim to save.

                With the promise of being normal.

                You call me a criminal.

                I am not.

                You call me a monster.

                I am not.

                You call me an abomination.

                I am not.

                Do what you want, but do not throw God’s name in it.

                Your God be my witness.

                If I ever make it into Heaven.
                I'm gonna rattle your pearly gates.
                I'm gonna scream above the angel's song.

                I’m gonna tell him everything.

                I’m gonna confess it all.