I’m feeling very disheartened.  In the past 48 hours I’ve read four articles about four young men who ended their lives after being tormented and abused by their homophobic peers.  Lives hold immeasurable value, and we must end the hatred fueled by our societal, familial, and religious values.  I wrote this for Seth Walsh, Tyler Clementi, Billy Lucas, and Asher Brown. Rise in Peace.

for some boys
weirdness can’t be constituted
by piercings
& miss-matched shoelaces

for some
need not quirky facebook quotes
or kid cudi videos
to remind them
that the world won’t
understand

our generation
has yet a vision wide enough
to hold their smile
i wish they were here
still
i can’t say i know
how long it’ll take
for us
to see them

these days
gay boys hang
from school yards
like lonely tetherballs

so these boys
liked boys
or maybe didn’t
or maybe like boys should
were still figuring shit out
but in this world
hearts pump blood
muddled by dust
from tomorrow’s history
& those enlightened early
are snuffed too soon

at times
like these
bigots don’t lynch
they don’t tar & feather
or burn at stakes
they just push
& push until
there’s no more room
for life
until
the whisper of a noose
breeze of a bridge’s ledge
& kiss of a bullet
is more welcoming
than here

for some bigots
murder is unnecessary
investigations are pointless
just hand your victim the gun
& leave the evidence
with the demons
in your head

to them
i wonder
when they grow old
& marry
& raise families
will they recall
how they kicked
& screamed
at the winds of change
or like their forefathers
who spat from their windowsills
at black bodies
pierced by hoses & dogbites
will they convince themselves
that when time proved them wrong
it wiped their sins

to the boys
who loved too hard for hate’s comfort
may the beauty of your mind
imagine a place
much greater
than this
surely
your last breath
held more than our hearts
know to contain

-adriel luis