Oh James

  I've read your biography

Our lives have similarities

I am you-you are Me

Religion played a role in our lives

Namely Christianity

At some point we were involved

I lectured- you preached

Our fathers could not understand

Our stark differences

From the neighborhood kids

And the usual man 

We shared a love

A love to read

To write- To describe

What we feel and see

With the end of junior high

Came the changes of life

Our preferences were not for the XX

But for the YX

In due time we saw the religion

As the greatest con

We dismissed the Bible

And ignored the Koran

 We aspire to write

Our objectives may vary

But where there is oppression

Our pen-we carry

My greatest disappointment

Is that you died

Two years and some change

Before my time

You overcame my struggles

And proclaimed, "Yes you can

Survive this jungle of life

As a black gay man."