“Daniel, I want to tell you before I say anything else
that I love you.”
People say love is what makes a family
People say love is patient and kind
That is not self seeking
or easily angered
People say love never fails.

You say you love me
You say I’ve made a choice
You say you won’t support me anymore
that I have to leave.
You say it’s all “out of love”, but how can you speak both love and hate
with the same voice?
I say you have failed.

“You’re a disgrace.”
You say I’ve dishonored you,
That your God hates me
That I lied and that I was ungrateful.
Six minutes ago you said
you loved me.
Now I’m screaming at you to stop hurting me.

“I’m not a disgrace.”
I say. I refuse to be.
“No, I’m not.”
But you, right here, have shown me
What hypocrites you can be.
But at least now I know
what love is not.

Later, I run into you in the street outside the post office
You tell me your bigotry was my fault, my choice
You blame me for the bruises you put on my skin- and on my heart.
Your words make me want to scream;
Instead I drive away.
Your words have succeeded in waking me up
It no longer feels like a dream.

But I still have a dream that you cannot pry away from me
And you cannot- you will not- blame me
For your failed excuse for love.
It’s not my fault I have more love in my heart
than you will ever know
It’s not my fault you hate me
just for where my love goes.

Someday, you will die alone
I will not be by your side.
Not because I stopped loving you
-or even because you don’t know how to fit a big,
star-shaped heart like mine
Into your Bible-shaped box-
But because you never even tried.

Someday I’ll make a new home and I’ll share my story
and I’ll help other stars like me.
Someday you’ll still be heartless-
that’s all that you know how to be.
Someday, thanks to- and despite- you and your failed love,
my dream
Will no longer be a dream.