Wings Poem by Nick Lee

Wings sprouted out of my back to fly me away from-
Queer people have wings to survive,
To fly away from danger
To fly away when everything around us is on fire
My identity makes those around me uncomfortable, sometimes to the point where I have to ask that if my identity makes you uncomfortable, will you kill me?
Watch how my survival be drag race
How it be 5 seasons of queer eye on netflix, how it be whitewashed by history claiming only white gays have wings that matter.
But we can fly too, just as beautifully.
I want queer people of color to know that their struggle is beautiful, that it's everything we need it to be to get white america to notice.
I wish white america could know how much we hurt, how much our wings substitute our passing as a thing we don't even have a name for.
Queer people, use your wings to fly away. Fly towards heaven, kingdom of queers. You will be safe with those who can fly with you, not against the current. Know your love is pure
Look, it's getting harder and harder to survive as a queer person of color, a person of color period! Because, in a city where I should be able to walk hand-in-hand with my partner at night, I'm scared. I'm scared because I wish for my sparkle to be adored, not looked down upon, it hurts my heartbeat to know that some wish my existence never transpired.
My love is pure yet I'm stuck wondering. Wondering how my partner who passed away 4 years ago feels now that all of the melanin from his skin evaporated into dust, wondering how all of the sparkle in his sunlit eyes couldn't force the punches to evade him. I'm left flying inside of my head with know way out
So Queer people know that your survival isn't miraculous
That it's not sunkissed privileged glossed golden apples
It is your wings
How they cover your naked bruised body
How they cover the facts that you are as fragile as broken glass from your makeup mirror
I fear for my life, I fear for my bloodline.
there is no other option. I refuse to live in fear. My whole life is about being out, about visibility, about having found the courage and freedom to be who I am. I don't know where we go from here. I don't know how we're supposed to find safety again, rebuilding it from scratch, in the shadows of so much pain and violence. It's not fair. It's not fair that someone can grab me OFF THE STREET and say-
god hates faggots.

See my greatest fear, in the greatest country in the world
Is that no matter how much I suffer?
I'll have never stood a chance. But you still can.
Watch a queer women of color disentigrate the glass ceiling with her rage.
Watch a gay black teen become president of the united states
Watch our struggle but fear what we will become
Because we are more than these wings
But america refuses to see that:
So I will say this
Queer people of color
You need to listen
Your sparkle is beautiful, but they may not think so.
Use you wings, find refuge
Find home
And fly