Matthew Shepard

[gollum]

Judy Shepard (Matthew's mom) spoke here at DePauw today...it just reminded me of this pome i wrote two years ago when he was killed.

-g

prematurely

Matthew Shepard
five foot two
a hundred and five pounds you
"came into this life prematurely
and left it prematurely"
but you shouldn't have.

i look over my buttons and pins
and posters and signs
and wonder if this is all worth it.
maybe i should just
keep quiet
and keep living,
although it is questionable
whether or not
the silent life
is life at all.

i think about the ride
in the back
of a pickup truck,
about twenty hours
tied to a fence,
about how beautiful the noise
of the tires of a bicycle across the road
must have sounded,
even through the filter
of your unconsciousness.

i finger my pins and buttons
hike up my boxer briefs
and glance towards my signs and posters.
i imagine the windswept Wyoming sky
as it got colder
and colder
and how horrible the world must have looked
through your bruised eyes.

i read a column in the newspaper
condemning those like you and i
as the author claims
to not be homophobic
and i wonder what God thinks
about this.
is God homophobic?
i don't know, and
you can't tell me.

my mind reels,
the world goes on,
people live and die
on both sides of the door,
stocks rise and fall

like your chest did
as you breathed
alone on a deserted stretch
of Wyoming.
Matthew Shepard
five foot two
one hundred and five pounds.
you "came into this world
prematurely
and left it
prematurely."

[JaceSan]

I like this one gollum. Even if it does make me sad. It's okay to be sad sometimes. When that first happened I was angry. Now I'm just sad...

[Oz]

Ditto what Jace said. Good emotion captured. I love poems that repeat the beginning at the end.

------------------
"What about him? What are you doing with him?"
"What you should be doing with me..."

Proud family member of Jelymo, gollum, Kelly, Dano, Jaxom27, 5Cats, Fenix and others.

I believe you can't appreciate real love until you've been burned

"Om Namaha Shivaya." ~ Dano

[crazy a]

I wish to be able to write something this good....

[happybunny2]

I was totally moved by this *WORK OF ART IN WORDS*.........

[Coke Cans]

Umm wow. Your words breath take me. I feel bad about posting this here because this is your thread... but because this thread is about him, I'll post the poem I wrote about his death. Because maybe he's watching. I don't think it's as beautiful or as specail as yours... I share it just to share.

~*~

People don't like
beautiful boys

Beautiful boy
so beautiful his shame
Lovely boy
so beautiful his love
dead boy
so beautiful his death...

in his pain
you feel the hate
in his tears
you see his life
in his existance
and in his death

there is a reminder
that can never be removed
people don't like
beautiful boys.