Ark

a coming out poem

by Adam R K

I’ve been silent.

I’ve been silent too long,

but can you blame me?

when my very existence is met

with hatred, violence, and death

throughout the world?

I am a minority,

yet I pass for the most privileged majority.

You probably can’t tell

who I really am.

If others welcomed you, accepted you,

embraced you,

without knowing the full scope of you,

would you keep that hidden part of you

a secret?

Would you?

when you know that they may

lynch you

when they hear your whole truth?

Well I have.

I’ve been silent.

But no more.

No more will I deny

that precious part

of who I am

for your comfort

(or mine).

Because being comfortable

and being alive

are not the same.

I’d live more freely

dying from your hatred

than I would by

staying silent.

Silence is Death.

I get that now.

So no more silence

anymore.

I am what you see,

but also so much more.

The question is,

when you do know,

will you still see me?

or instead, will you see a monster?

a false perception

in the happy place I once inhabited

in your mind?

No matter.

Not my problem.

How you see me is none

of my concern.

My own liberty is what I

chase now—

the liberty to love how I love,

to express love in the way

I desire,

without harm to any other.

How can that be wrong?

Do you still want to discard me?

No more

will I be silent.

That’s right.

For I am among a phenomenal

community of outcasts,

which stretches far into

every corner of the globe,

every race,

every nation,

every profession,

because we are

an essential part

of human nature,

the Natural Order,

“God’s plan.”

Oh yes.

Nothing can stop us.

Not even death.

So,

you might as well

embrace us.

There’s nothing to fear.

We are 

L oving 

G ood 

B rave 

T ruthful and 

Q uintessentially

QUEER.

Damn right we’re proud

when no longer do we choose

to harbor a secret.

Ah, what relief!

Coming out

from the shadows I’ve cast

upon myself,

I breathe the first

clean breath of air

in my life.

Yes, I am proud,

because now, I am free,

because now, I am whole,

because now I release myself

from the shackles of your judgment... because now,

no longer

am I silent.

*

Isabella Hammad, from Enter Ghost