your act of volition

What an auspicious day to launch the show for the Anywhere Festival, just as President Obama affirms “personally” that he supports marriage equality.

No doubt, the daily news feeds will be humming with speculation and commentary, the over-analysis of a small set of phrases, waiting for some sort of meaningful explication of “what does this mean?”

Presumably, today, for same-sex couples in North Carolina, it means much. Although perhaps not as much as they would like right now.

Yet, somehow, I feel heartened. Leadership matters. The way that our elected few define their position on social issues goes a long way to shaping how the vociferous many will lead their lives. Again, perhaps not as far as some would like.

As someone who identifies varyingly as queer or bisexual or just plain “into it”, I have often debated whether there would come a time when I would be able to marry a woman as easily as a man and, in fact I have sometimes stated glibly that I would not do the second until I could as easily do the first.

with whatever shred of holiness
was left to us
you would tell the $100/head
room of obligations –

I am the blood that sings for your every day
You are my shared broken army of memory
I am your act of volition
You are my choice
We are each other’s enough

And that is love.