Dharini B

“When I was young
I wanted to be just like him.
One of the charm, of a bright orange smile
and muscular laughter.
Bold brown eyes flashing fearless
when he sat not alone
on cold blue nights
in empty boxcars.

Riding a freight train's
solitary wail
away from Nebraska
Depression, accompanying dreams
withered farms.
Nothing left but the
leaves of possibilities.”
― Larsen Bowker

“When I was growing up my mother used to tell me that the best gift parents could give their children was to have a strong and loving relationship with each other.”
― George Howe Colt, The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home

“And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
― Anaïs Nin

“The mothers were the hardest on them, the fathers off to the side. Most of these young men were raised Pentecostal, and Pentecostals just hated gay people. The churches were so powerful and set where the family stood in life. The women had probably seen an example made of someone else, about some smaller defiance. Men can sometimes do the deciding about who is exiled, but it's women who do the day-to-day work of shunning. They knew they'd lose everything if they'd showed mercy to their sons.”
― Ruth Coker Burks, All the Young Men: A Memoir of Love, AIDS, and Chosen Family in the American South