Orlando,

tomorrow is forming

no more as we pretended

mourning informed by scores

our innocence ended

sinisterly splintered bodies

friends once befriended

so senselessly littered

amid the tears on the floor

screams nestled in ears

literary of incinerating oratory

raining fears from the pulpit

spun from bits of underneath

threadbare wreath of prayers

and thoughtless thoughts

blame in twitter feeds

hateful message boards

drawn from darker parts

thier oblivious hearts

as though this hideous massacre

were ordained by their Lord

harbingers of terror created in the garbage

of their own hateful  ignorance

people everywhere bleeding

from either side of this sword

 

We are more than Orlando

so very much more

We are the memories of these so needlessly bleeding

beneath the ceiling of a war torn dancefloor

We are our neighbors kneeling on the streets of Baltimore

the extraordinary knowledge

we all too quickly ignore

We are every virgin whore standing on the corner

the importance of our beautiful truth

We are the incorrigible

adorable youth

We are every club kid with a sweet tooth

dancing in our fruit colored underwear  

We are a leather bear with a mischievous sneer

and the cub with a cupboard full of fetish gear

We are another unrequited crush

hearts dared never touch

 

We are the fags, bull dykes, weirdos, trans, drag and queers

We are in the living memorials to those no longer there

the hopes of a young couple

dreaming of years forever married

who were instead in these hours

under scattered flowers together buried

between these shattered waters

we are forty nine mothers,

sisters and daughters

forty nine fathers, brothers and sons

in all forever unfinished and now never begun

We are those tonight who are proud

to wear our pride on our sleeve

those from whom the thieves stole

not our achievements

left behind when we leave

wrestling from us everything

we’ve come to believe

murderers who stole the brightest of our smiles

stealing all of our goodbyes

seizing all four seasons

and every sunrise

our every wish without reason

silencing our eyes and the sun from the skies

shells from the turtle and the swells of the ocean

for all that might well forever

be unfinished

and never begun