Breaking the Silence

About three years ago there came a time
when the spaces of my life
became too wide
for me to hold myself together
without language.
three years past I realized the silence
around my heart
was constricting to the point of foreclosure.
Three years past I took a boy in my arms
and laid kisses on him that drove the sun from the sky
in shame that she could never offer enough warmth to replace my affection.
But you know, this is not a coming out poem.
Silence pervades our society like lactose in milk that lets some rest quietly telling us to take it for our health, while 70% of the world’s population has to shit it out under duress.
Silence is a parasite feeding on the underbelly of our consumptive complacency
Silence is not t-shirts and quiet nods
Not sign language and notes passed
Silence is fat girls with pgtails who don’t have words like hegemonic societal expectations
It is underpaid workers with silences named Joaquin and Kike who must be provided for
Silence is 2 cars to every household and 4.5 pounds of trash per capita
It is wedding bands and don’t ask, don’t tell
It is queer eyes for straight guys and my face nowhere on the television screen
It is complaining silently to paper, drying eyes on sleeves long enough to hide the marks
Silence extends beyond the harassment and violence visited upon us as a community to our own inability to ask and tell
To gather the courage, tell the story, stand together, leave this place and continue to tell the story that will break the silence that will free the story that we’ll go on telling to break the silence.
What will you do?