7
Clifford Browder:
Memorial
Because I cannot forget
The thousands and thousands of gay people
Known and unknown
Who over the centuries
In many parts of the world
Were tossed off roofs, stoned
Drawn and quartered, beheaded
Sodomized and hanged
By the good folk of their time
Pious and prayerful
Eager to preserve
The moral health and dignity
Of their tidy little worlds,
Because this savage memory
Burns my mind like acid
And stokes my rage
I pray to the gods of justice
That those martyred victims
Be remembered in the annals of redemption
And the book of joy
And that their murderers
Having writhed in horror and contrition
For their misguided crimes
Be at last admitted
To the sanctuary of forgiveness
And humbly rest in peace.