Belonging

They assure me

I’m among friends.
They say they love me
like their God does.
Oh how I hope it is true!
Could it be, that I could
find a place to be and rest?
Where I could belong?

I fear with all my might
that they will see
the me that’s inside of me.
I edit my words.
I tell my story with caution.
I read their faces.
for any reaction
that says I don’t belong.

He cracks a harmless joke.
But a word was used
that’s always used
against me and my kind.
Like a turtle, I’ll let them
eye my presentable shell.
But my self will stay hid.
I alone belong with me.

The image is a cropped portion of the artist Tim Lowly’s painting, Testimony of Transience (Steve the “Queer”).