After the confetti falls

After the confetti falls

and I peel off my faux eyelashes

is when I come crashing to reality.

I was celebrated and surrounded

by people just like me,

only to crawl back into the shadows

of a world that doesn’t love us.

There’s no oasis somewhere over the rainbow,

no place where we can all truly be free.

It’s been decades since the first brick at stonewall,

yet we’re still fighting for our rights.

We’re perverse and broken

in the eyes of the ignorant

even though we’re human too.

We’re judged for who we love,

as if love is anything to be punished.

Under the rainbow lights,

we shine in our true forms.

Yet at the end of the month,

we sweep up the confetti

and return to the nine to five grind.