The Running Lovers (627 Words of Resistance)

My lover and I,

We came to the church.

“We seek the peace of God which passes all understanding;

Will you give us sanctuary?”

But they did not listen.

They named us by the Evil Names,

Names of Devils,

Prayed away

By starving our souls.

They whipped us,

Raped us,

To “correct”

The portrait of God

They could not accept.

So we ran.

My lover and I,

We came to the synagogue.

“We wish to keep the Commandments and revel in wisdom;

Will you bless us and keep us?”

But they did not listen.

Shunned,

Stabbed in the street,

Barred from the holiest of holies.

Spurned from the only home

The Wandering People can know.

Chosen--

Only--

To be outcasts.

So we ran.

My lover and I,

We came to the mosque.

“Wherever you turn, there is the face of God;

Will you see our devotion and remember The Merciful, The Compassionate?

But they did not listen.

They accused us of

Abomination,

Of filth;

Unclean

To partake of God’s abundance.

Condemned

To repent—

Or face

He who throws the first stone.

So we ran.

My lover and I--

We came behind the Iron Curtain.

“Free us from the opioid of the masses; let us stand with you as equals.”

But they did not listen.

They sent us to the furthest reaches

Of a frozen hell,

The cold ground opened only for the dead.

Put to work until we could be cured--

No longer a menace

To the revolutionaries making the world anew

Into a world where we did not exist.

Erased, shaven down with

Cruelty

Until we were ghosts,

To be shot in the head

And forgotten.

So we ran.

My lover and I--

We went to the secular democracy.

“All men are created equal;

Will you let our truths be held self-evident?”

But they did not listen.

They locked us up in bright white asylums,

And sent teams of scientists to peer at us

Through tiny windows.

They ran tests on us.

In the name of science,

They pronounced: PERVERSION!

They outlawed us.

They chemically castrated us;

To cure us,

To neutralize our threat to progress.

But when a virus ravaged our bodies--

Ah!

No treatment to be found.

So we ran.

But where were we to go?

Every corner of the planet was filled with hateful tongues,

Given permission to terrorize

By the silent majority.

Every single one of them had betrayed us.

There was nowhere left to run.

And so we stood and fought.

My lover and I--

We went back to the secular democracy.

We went back to the communist headquarters.

We went back to the mosque,

The synagogue,

The church.

With our banners and our marches,

Our sit-ins, our pray-ins, our vote-ins;

With our blood, our tears, and our lives:

We faced down the police.

The scientists.

The politicians.

The holiest of hatreds.

And flung wide the closet doors!

And now we are married;

Removed from the physician’s manual of mental illnesses,

Registered for joint tax returns.

Now we are given a seat at the table

Beside our comrades,

Our skills invaluable to the survival of our country.

Now we pray side by side,
Foreheads kissing the ground,

A wall against injustice.

Now we march

With pride

In the heart of the Holy Land.

Now each week Father Charlie,

In his rainbow bowtie,

Welcomes us to Communion.

We are everywhere.

Not gone,

Not erased,

But fighting—

For everything beautiful and true,

For every idea worth considering,

Every pathway to peace,

Every place to call home.

Keep up the fight, my brothers and sisters.

Whatever fight you choose to call yours.

You and your lover don’t need to run anymore.

You are not alone.

You will not be erased.

We will stand together.