Deadstone

How many of us are buried 
under our dead-names?
Beneath tombstones covered in lies
written by others and called truths.

 

How many have had their existence,
not just questioned, but erased 
by a family too ashamed
to call a Queer child their own.

 

These are crimes we need to remember,
indignities that must be corrected
so that when this dark night has passed,
the world can know who we truly were.

 

Because no one should lie forever
beneath other people’s lies.