Trauma is a Hallway

Trauma is a hallway.

It's that place where you wait when there isn't enough space where you're trying to go.

It's the gauntlet you run, hourly, because it's also your only ticket to somewhere else.

It's where people are sent when they've been bad. It's where good people are sent when it is time for the hard, unpleasant, humiliating to take place.

It's a one way street, no U-turns allowed, leading to the last answer,
a conclusive result, a final destination.

I have walked down that hallway, before the dawn,
with her limp form still furry in my arms,
all options exhausted but one,
and me exhausted from trying them all.

I have left by that same hallway now carrying nothing but my anguish.


--Dan

Jenny's Message to Queer Youth

Another awesome piece from Saturday's GSA workshop

No more running.
I’ve been quiet for too long
while you’ve breathed Sodom and Gomorrah-
all those fags who done got what they deserved.

Time to express, liberate myself;
The truth shall set me free.
So here’s the meat of what I’m saying-
No more vegetables in this speech-
I’m queer as all get-out.

Now comes the hard part- resilience.
How do I cope with your eyes,
Your lips drawn tight?
How do I cope with being a different kind of human?

You ask me, what would Jesus say
when I finally reach the gilded gates?

This life is my masterpiece.
It just so happens my paint is rainbow.

My hands clench into fists.
I am alive, I say.
I’m living for love.

If Jesus asks about that at the gilded gates, I’ll tell him I’m living for that
And for girls.

--Nicholle