Untitled

Back then they
Had no words
The stones were loud enough.
I was caught kissing a boy—
The sweet one—who
Helped me carry coal.
He was not strong, but we
Made gravity stronger.
Interlocking our eyes
Unlocked our hearts
And the coal mines didn’t kill us,
Painted black—two boys in the dark
Lurking in the coal mines
Alone. Together.
Alone.
Together.
They had no words for us,
The cracks of the whip
Had a melody so just
That brandishing heat
Into my lover’s skin
Patterned welts on mine.
They couldn’t describe us,
It was too evil, they said.
All it took was a shepherd
So blind that sheep everywhere
Became black—and so we blacked.
Men with men.
Ick. Ick. Ick.
Th-wack. Th-wack.
Boys with boys.
Ick. Ick. Ick.
Th-wack. Th-wack.
They saw to it—
The saw was quicker for me
Slower for my lover, my friend.
But I would saw me over
And over and slower and again
To erase my lover’s cries
Wiped, just the way him
They killed.
The coal mines have
Since produced no heat, no warmth
And man looks to science
To explain polar vortexes and ice shards
Emanating from his own
Black. Black. Horrid. Heart.
And I know the sun won’t shine,
Our wages will be just paper
Fragile like our bodies
And we will sh(r)ed.
Like Marcel did.
But I also know—
When the ground
Will embrace us
And the rain wash the black,
We will sprout green
And the sun will rise—
It will be there
For us to grow.