"Silent No More"
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.
🖤
