by Nick Gisburne
Remember how you hid your spirit scars,
Embarrassed to be anything but pure,
An alien, a stranger from the stars,
Too paranoid for pride, too insecure.
Remember all the bullying, the names,
The friends who learned to hate you as they grew,
The callous, crude, humiliating claims
You never told me, fearing they were true.
Remember when you felt it first, the spark,
The change of life, the energy inside,
When each of us is ready for the Mark,
The radiance from which we cannot hide.
A thousand times derided, damned, defiled,
Remember, when they beg and burn, my child.
