the back of my backyard

This is a poem aiming to acknowledge and respect the LGBTQIA+

community in our world. Over the past few years, this community

has gained a lot of respect but not enough. It’s been 2 million

years since humans were first discovered; it’s time we become

inclusive of the varied colours of the human spectrum

and start loving them for who they are.

***

in the back of my backyard,

there’s a bench.

it’s painted in

rosebud red and inflamed orange,

sun-kissed yellow and resplendent green,

rippled blue and grapevine violet

and all the colours of the spectrum in between.

there’s a tree that provides the bench with some shade;

baby pink and light blue leaves grow on it.

it was planted 2 million years ago

but it hasn’t been given the freedom to flourish.

there aren’t a lot of people who come to rest

in my backyard

because they’re scared the world still looks

through a black and white lens,

afraid that if the world catches sight

of the colourful bench that they sit on,

they’ll paint it in shades

of black and white

and the colourful backyard

will lose its colour

and there’ll be no

coloured bench left

to rest on

ever

again.