The Grief of Pride

Pink, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Turquoise and Violet.

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Guilt, Depression, Reconstruction, and Acceptance

Seven colors of a flag, Seven stages of Grief

Is that what coming out is meant to be?

Is that what liberation has come to mean?

Is the Spirit of my Acceptance all that’s left of me?

Does Pride simply mean finally being seen?

Pink

Denying what we are feels like a rite.

Not of passage, but of deliverance.

Of trying to pretend, to deny that we might

Not be ready for the terms of our existence.

To understand sex and not Orientation

We do not fall within picture perfect lines

In our romantic pursuits and personal relations.

Red

The constraints, the judgement on the many crimes

We have not committed leads to unrelenting anger.

To frustration, like the bindings of a cage

Not of our own making. Like a quickly sinking anchor,

We seethe, dropping into the abyss with thoughts of rage.

Disappearing instead into a hatred for life.

Orange

For what part of our tortured life is worth living

Without control. Scared, as if with a knife

Glistening at our throats we seek to bargain. Bidding

Those who’d seek to do us harm to consider

Instead let us lead our life hidden in the shadows.

Yellow

Black and white, we pretend we do not differ

From what it is you’d expect of us. We forego

A life of truth in the sunshine to earn your respect.

As if we are not guilty of sins in your eyes.

Green

Now stressed and depressed, we bury an aspect

Of our natural forms, of our true nature. Now we lie

To hide our scarred and damaged Pride from you.

Turquoise

And yet, the magic of our everlasting journey

Is continual reconstruction. Only through

Violet

Acceptance of spirit do we save ourselves.

Pink, Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Turquoise and Violet

Perhaps a flag built on grief is no way to lead a life.

Seven steps instead to acceptance of oneself.

No more black and white,

These are my True Colors.