Creative Writing

#RhymeAndReason : Queer We

By अमित कुमार (Amit Kumar)

June 18, 2020

Queer, Freak, Abnormal they sayTwisted, malformed or out of the wayA kind, a de trop, a deviant typeA travesty, a sham, a contagious hype

You labelled us strangeAnd want us to changeLike we all are ill, or mangeAll you did was, estrange

We’ve been framed, all lies behindEccentric, a sickness, we’ve been definedFor years in shackles, we’ve been confinedAlas! You imprisoned one of your kind

What we live is a miserable lifeA hide-out attempt, a major strifeA Rumour, a phobia that ran rifeOur lives worthless, merely trife

What do we have, a mere desire?Trapped in a corner of freedom less squareRepressed voices, bodies on fireOr hire, or bier, for a matter of attire

Strength of yours might be your historyOr knowledge, or wonders of your victoryBut less of numbers will be our mysteryThe deeds of ours will be benedictory

Abnormal us, normal y’all pretendSadly mistaken that fight has no endWe’ll be fighting, as tall we standWe’ll defend, blend, and to amend

Space, a place is all we needRequested for long, and pleadQueer ‘we’ all, red we bleedSimilar we share, the seed and breed.

All of you needs such queer bitesUpgrading brain, uprooting plightsLong we craved to have right to rightsIf not the dawn, dusk will be our lights

This poem is among the 13 shortlisted poems under the Rhyme and Reason contest by Rainbow Literature Festival and Gaylaxy, and supported by The Qknit,that was held in May.