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I’m gay I’m gay I’m gay I’m gay I'm gay
it kind of
spills off my tongue
when I don’t want it to
an
impulse
a
burning choke in my throat
falling out of me when I wish it would stay inside
when strangers are around
when
they really don’t need to know

it’s painted on my face
it’s written on the backs of my hands
my collarbone is burning white hot with a tell
and my eyes watering every secret of it

can they tell?
can everyone see right through me?
I’m
too scared to ask
somehow
also too scared to keep it inside

It wants out more than anything
but
she wants to be safe more than anything
 Sep 2017 Brother Jimmy
Shanath
I am counting sunsets
On my fingers,
Falling short.

The sky falls so slow here
I can almost see
My eyelids brush the bottom.

The distance between us
Stretches beyond land and oceans
Yet the same star would fall on us both.

Your voice to me is waves
From the sound of air in a sea shell,
I can't tell which is what.

The moon and my bed
Feel the same
Perhaps so are you and the images in my head.
If you knew, if you knew.
 Sep 2017 Brother Jimmy
Emily B
when I began to write
poetry
all those years ago

I was amazed to find
that I even
had a voice.

It was a gift
that I never
hoped for.

I only shared light.

There is too much
darkness.

And then
little by little
I had to write
about the monsters
in the deep.

And my writing
got to be
unrecognizable.

Those couldn't be
my words.

Don't bury me
in a grave
in a big old box
I've known too much
darkness.

And so here I am
trying to balance
injury
with hope for a new future

That may be called
healing.
 Sep 2017 Brother Jimmy
Shanath
As a kid I found a hammer,
But I knew not how to use it.
I carried it everywhere
Like most girls carried
Barbies.

Then I saw a few men
Use their hands thrashing walls.
The walls stayed intact
But their knuckles
Deformed.

So I learnt a new trick
I waved my hammer like a wand,
And ran through the town
Entering buildings, breaking
People.

When the violence in the world ended,
I tried to caress people
But instead I hit them hard.
Then I realized my hands were the
Hammer.

So I thrashed the mirror first
To see how it could feel.
I saw it broke, the world stayed intact.
So with my hands I bashed my
Head.
The usual thoughts.
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