By Noel Ullom

To my friends that feel hidden,

Unrecognized,

Concealed in the shadows of the very figures

You had expected to hold and lift you up:

To my friends that have fought endless battles,

Ones fought mostly behind the scenes

Yet leave the scars of unbearable arrows

Aimed indirectly yet completely at your heart

That they labeled as misled.

May you someday find the lost yet treasured door

Of hope

That you have searched for for so many years,

In your most innocent yet haunting dreams.

The doorknob that opens not even a perfect world,

But only the hearts of those who surround you

As you have watched so many,

Too many,

Of those cherished bonds become broken

As people mistake the beautiful melody of your identity

For the thunder of a storm.

May you one day find those hugs of acceptance you have longed for,

Ones of tears that stream into rivers of memories lost,

Ones full of the salt of a marvelous yet forbidden secret.

May the light labeled the flames of hell

By those who turned a blind eye

Instead shine like the glow of heaven that it truly is,

And may you watch in awe and reassurance

As the same light flows through the prism of your undying strength

And the colors of the unending rainbow

Dance in pride on your unbreakable walls.