I breathe dust and think fire
my mind sizzles with spirit
I write with my left hand and see with both eyes
but that doesn’t matter.

thoughts without thought
diffuse like poisonous gas
from the mouth of the man
his audience inhale malefic fumes

“Homosexuality is against the will of mother nature” he hisses
yet she is nowhere to be seen.
when rain falls to the concrete
I know
she cries like the rest of us

I am trapped in his freedom
his right to speak as he likes
takes away my right
to exist.
Only silence remains.

I will not be reduced
to a title
a statistic
a fixture of mindless rhetoric

yet his words continue
screeching darkness in my ears
he doesn’t know love
but he’ll do all that he can
to strip it from others

when his daughter sobs into her pillow
and drips her scarlet shame on the white bathroom tiles -
He’ll learn.
until then his forked tongue will flick venom in the air
the narrow tunnel of his mind unmined

I long for the day
people think before they say:
I am not
homophobic
but