Differences
Published in
Oct 30, 2020
An LGBTQ+ coming out poem
it just never seemed fair
always waiting
to be the last chosen
just because I wheezed when I ran
or I could never throw a ball
quite like the other guys
could
it wasn’t fair
i never knew how different
i was until
i found this book in
my brother’s bedroom
then when the time came
to tell my parents
i knew
they would go off and cry
and say it’s cause
i wasn’t like the other kids
but they said “who cares”
not every baseball
has to fly.
for bob and dorothy
(This poem was originally published in Tyro Magazine in 1988 as well as my chapbook of the same name in 1989. The book I found in my brother’s bedroom was “The Front Runner” by Patricia Nell Warren)
