blogs & Poetry

Still, I show up

I am blessed to breathe this borrowed air,

To walk a life that’s mine to bear.

And yet each day, with steady drum,

I feel my freedom come undone—

Mine, and my siblings’, coast to coast,

In this called-home we love the most.

I named myself before my age,

Spoke truth before the world’s cold stage.

Before the rules, before the fear,

I saw myself already clear.

But now the noise, the crafted lies,

Attempt to blur my living eyes—

To erase the mirror I once knew,

To shrink the man I’m growing into.

There’s only so much space to weigh

My queerness in the light of day,

Because my Blackness—firm, profound—

Was here before, is tightly bound.

It speaks first, walks first, takes the lead,

It is my history, my need.

I carry both with upright pride,

With faith, with love, with country wide.

I entered twenty-twenty-five

Asking how I stay alive—

Not just in breath, but fully seen,

In all the spaces in between.

I turned to spirit, deepened prayer,

Found strength in knowing God is there.

I studied leaders bold and free,

Who dare exist defiantly—

Black and queer, still standing tall,

Still loving through the rise and fall.

They fight, they heal, they liberate,

They show up early, stay up late.

To live this way, then share the flame,

To call another by their name—

That kind of courage changes air.

So now I search for it everywhere.

And I found it close, I found it near,

Across the Coast I hold so dear.

In Florida, in distant towns,

In quiet rooms and sacred grounds.

I found it in my chosen few,

In family’s love that carried me through.

I bring my best self every day,

Even when dawn feels far away.

When grief is loud, when pain is real,

When anxiety refuses to kneel—

Still, I arrive. Still, I stand.

Still, I offer my open hand.

And though these waves are hard to ride,

I’m held by knowing—side by side—

I’m not alone in what I feel,

In bending without having to yield.

That truth, that warmth, that shared resolve

Helps the weight begin to dissolve.

I show up—not because it’s light,

But because my life is worth the fight.