Queer (Free-verse Poem)

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 A poem to celebrate. A poem to unite. Pride month is here, and while a person's identity as queer and a member of the LGBTQIA+ community is not limited to one month a year, it is a time to come together and celebrate, commemorate, remember, and fight.

Queer by C.M. Townsend

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Queer is not a word.

Queer is not a label.

It is more than blood,

more than name,

more than flag.


Queer is not a colour,

neither place nor person.

Queer is not loosely used,

nor a personality marker thrust out lightly.


Queer identity.

It is who we are.

No choice made

for it lies within our

very DNA.


Queer is not new.

It is not our invention.

Time speaks of history,

ancestors and presence,

of people long hidden

who've made themselves

known,

no longer afraid,

no longer outlawed.


Tides are changing, though,

and we are left to fight the

waves.

Familiar and unwelcome,

reminders of times

thought since passed.

Instead, we are hurled

backwards,

to a time none wish to relive;

where icy cruelties are

legal,

natural,

normal.


To a time where we lay bleeding,

naked,

exposed.

Targets of a witch hunt,

fear mongered propaganda.

Screamed at and insulted,

belittled,

assaulted in the street.


Laws revoked,

reverted,

reframed,

striping away one's rights.

Eroding safety,

restricting speech,

outlawing life–


And so we stand

and fight.


Queer is not a title,

nor a way of life.

Queer is who we are.

Who we'll always be.

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