PRIDE POETRY CONTEST

Thank you to everyone that submitted a poem for our first ever Pride Poetry Contest. We were so impressed with the creativity and love you have for our community.

Congratulations to Bree Smith for wining this year’s contest!

I am queer

Because I was

never meant to

Be interpreted one way

Because linear is 

too stifling for me

Because linear implies 

straight lines

Where my life 

Is written in cursive

I am queer

Because all of my life 

I have been told

That I beat to the 

rhythm of my own drum

And that was one of 

the very few things

That resonated as truth for me 

I am queer 

Because I was put on this earth 

In a box

With a life mission

To remove those lines

And be infinite

Because it doesn’t matter 

What I have loved in the past 

What matters 

Is I love for the sake

Of being brave enough 

To learn what true love is 

In the first place 

I am queer 

Because when I saw the movie 

With the island of misfit toys

I whispered to myself 

“Home”

I am queer 

Because anytime 

I hear the word

“Should” 

I twitch and 

shift uncomfortably 

in my seat

I am queer 

Because I don’t want to stay in my lane 

Nor be in yours

I want to be in the meadow of wild flowers

And tall, soft grass instead 

I am queer

Because I am fluid like a river

In a world that claimed me to be concrete

I am queer 

Because being indescribable 

Being unable to define me 

Is the closest 

Thing I can give you

 to a definition

Of myself 

Or intentionally

Lack thereof