At first I just whispered it
Into the ear of a trusted friend
I told him “I am. . . “
And he looked aghast,
The last thing he’d expected, I guess.
He kept silent, ran away,
Unable to comprehend that I was ‘one of them’
And really, I should have known better
Than to go into school the next day
I should have known
That all of them would stare at me, relentless, but no one
Would look me in the eyes
And no one would speak to me
But all of them would talk around me
Just too far away to hear their words
But close enough to know exactly what they said
Head down, I ran through,
Arms full of textbooks and hands full of anger
Just waiting to burst full force onto his bones
And head somehow still full of logic and cynical thought
Knowledge that there was no solution now
What I’d hoped would be support
He turned into snide remarks, their view of me entirely changed
All I’d done was whisper, hoping to leave my words where they’d fallen
But he took them, spread them along the school walls
For all to see, and turned my whisper
Into blasting gossip screaming