What I Want in My Life

What I want in my life

Is to be loved

Wrapped against the cold sunrise.

Is to be valued against the odds.

Is to live like I’ve never lived before.

Is to hug those who’ve given their last breath in fight.

And to kiss the cheeks of those before me.

Is to grow a million times over—like the measle-pox.

Is to look at the world short of question.

Is to feed what is not fed.

To love what is not loved.

When it’s over, I want to say,

I’ve conquered—I’ve made a difference in someone else’s life.

Meanwhile, the world will go on.

With or without me, nobody knows that, yet.

The mountains, rivers, and animals; I weep. I bow to pray in the garden of Eden.

Birds high in the clear blue sky taking their last breath.

I don’t want to be remembered as a man, but simply—

A dreamer. An immigrant. A gay human, of some sort.