Remembering Bodies: Part 3/5, Proud Bodies

You lived

And you did it with meaning, and you did it with flippancy you spoke loudly and rapidly, and always said yes you spoke leisurely and slowly, and always said yes.

They killed you because you always said yes, but you said no to them because you said no to their shit, to their lies, to their laws, excuse the tautology.

You said no to their religion, their world and sex and cookie-cut lives.

You

Said

No.

And they left you in an unmarked grave, they razed you, spit on you, cursed your name.

They named you awful things to scare the children in the dark to stop them from being like you,

and you still said no.

And now we say

No.

They tarnished your names,

But names are mere sounds meant to call to attention a soul, souls they cannot erase.

So, we promise, when they call our names,

and they will,

they call yours– the queers the blacks the savages the forsaken the lost children– all the dirty names they thought controlled us,

and we will roar