Member-only story
What My Family Doesn’t Know Might Hurt Them
A poem
and maybe they lost the right to know
maybe they never had a right to know me
if who I was is something to be hidden
if queer is never uttered in male company
if they only wish I was just like so and so
if the boys of the family can’t say gay
without disdain breeding on their tongues
if I am the villain of their story when
the truth is I am only a reader
and they’ve lost the right
to open my pages to
understand me anymore when truly
they want to tell me who and what
I am and to follow their narrative
no matter what, my family aren’t villains
I love them as my heroes even if my hope
for them to have humility enough
to admit their mistakes will never
be our ending.