Thoughts From A Patio At The End Of July

I wonder where I would be in life – if I chose a different road.
If I challenged fate I wonder where the paths
of my emotions would’ve taken me, if only…I had the choice.
There is happiness here, as I write;

a place of content in my heart as I look out into
a blanket of repose. There are so many elements of prose
out there as I remember the memories in time I’ve travelled
to find this inner peace; the seasons of pain

I’ve endured to find ease with the metaphorical rain
that has soaked my soul with the meaning of life
and all of the hearts sacrifices

to find health growth, definition and truth.

I’ve come so far. As when I was a child, I looked up
at these same turquoise skies wondering
where my destination would take me. I remember
the freedom back then; a time when I didn’t know of sadness.
There was no conflict in my voice or fear
in my eyes. Through journeys of possibility I would rise

but I wasn’t ready for the adolescent surprise
of hardships making it difficult for me to continue
to believe I could just be me
in a world not ready yet to see
the puberty of homosexuality
begin to clutch onto the fabric of originality.

So many summers past I sat alone in open fields
resting my inner secrets against the exposure
of pride. I wrote with my mind many poems
just to find that conversation with society;

hoping drunken aspects of hate found that necessary
sobriety. I didn’t know back then that I was one
of many hidden. I was one of many who received snarls
for a chosen lifestyle that honestly choose us

through the natural being of birth. We were placed on this earth
as contributors of art, literature and lyrical praise,

so– as another July ends I sit here in discovery ,
with the tears of ink filtering through my hands

I raise…I raise a toast
to those who have fought
and continue to fight for the civil rights

of expression.