(Black and white)
I shared my soul,
opened mind, arms, and heart
and in the end, lost those too:
I didn’t look the part.

(warfare)
Fatalities:
Hope. Love. Faith.
They lie here
Struck down by the failure of believing
In the beauty of one’s spirit
To transcend the beauty of the shell
for its journey.
Headlines bleed apathy’s soured victory.
You haven’t yet raised your weapon
But mark these the first of your kills.

(You’ll never know how this hurts)
I looked for words
To express what it’s done
Shock, hurt, shake,
Deceive, torture, defeat
Yet everything falls short
Of the way it felt to have
The light of my spirit
Stabbed and bleed out
On the double-edged knife
Of “I love you, but:”
To live with the understanding
That your worth is measured
In the influence of a hormone
Rather than influence of your light
That no goodness or brilliance
Shining from within
Is enough to cover for the
Skin I’m without.
My spirit, my mind
These two of three
Could not compensate
For the flaw of my body,
The third against which
The two now rage in a dissonant
War. “Unforgivable,” they say
“to cause such a loss,”
Blaming each other on if only
and what if…
Every day, I remember.