amy grace mcallister was the preacher’s pride and joy. she paid attention every sunday even better than the boys. and when her daddy praised her she didn’t know the toll of a life lived ignoring the very stirring in her soul. she wore her shorts down to her knees and her dresses flowing wide and when she put on makeup it wasn’t out of pride. amy grace mcallister was chaste as chaste could be, offering god her body as an act of charity. when amy grace turned fourteen, her world began to shift. she met rose parker at the mall and her eyes began to drift. they played games and gossiped, like all children do, but something deep inside her turned her thoughts real blue. amy grace mcallister went back to church that night. she smiled while her daddy got up to preach the light, but a twisting of her stomach set her on the very edge. her pen took on a shudder as she signed his purity pledge: i am amy grace, the preacher’s daughter and to god i will be true. i’ll dunk myself in holy water and make my soul brand new. and when a boy tries to touch i’ll keep myself real clean i’ll be the virgin mary, the perfect figurine. the congregation clapped their hands her daddy seemed real pleased. and amy sat beside her friends, while something in her seized. it was ugly. it was rotten. it was absolutely deviant. so amy stuffed it down real deep and tried to be obedient. rose parker was a dangerous friend, amy knew this well. she was the devil in disguise, dragging her to hell. so amy prayed real hard one day, and texted rose a verse: “no i can’t come out to play you’ll just make it worse.” amy grace turned eighteen, on november twenty-third. four years had passed since the day rose parker heard her word. she looked her up—a passing thought of friendship that had wilted, and instead of feeling wistful, her world became real tilted: “rose parker won a scholarship for queer achieving youth. she will graduate with honors and is pleased to live her truth. she thanks her mom and her aunt for showing her that love doesn’t have to look the same as lies that people shove. and she is very happy with her overflowing life she hopes that one day she will find a just-as-happy wife.” amy grace mcallister left the site on read, a stone sunk in her body her thoughts filled up with dread. “my dear, are you ready?” her daddy knocked real loud, and amy grace tried breathing her confusion like a cloud. “one minute, sir,” her strangled voice called out to him that day, and amy grace mcallister stood up with a sway. she smiled at the crowd as her dad held up her arm, and with a nod, and then a kiss, he read to her alarm: “dearly beloved today we’re here to do what is right, my daughter amy grace, has given us a fright. these past four years she tried to follow all god’s rules for her but sin comes knocking like a wolf so it’s our job to deter. today we marry amy grace and our youth minister, reid. i know he’s twelve years older but she’s pregnant with his seed. he made mistakes but it’s ok, because now he’s making it right. so turn around and take his hand, and kiss your shining knight.” rose parker turned thirty on friday, june the first. she was teaching music theory when her water, it did burst. she called her wife and then her mom and took a taxi to the clinic she breathed through a contraction, and cursed them like a cynic. as they wheeled her to her room she looked above her bed, and frowned in question at the plaque hanging overhead. “what’s that,” she asked, and pointed up. her nurse let out a hum, “oh just a dedication to a former mum. she died last year, i’m sad to say, her church was really rocked. her husband had been hurting her, her father was quite shocked.” rose sat back lost in thought as people whirled around. she kissed her fingers to her heart and said with a frown, “amy grace mcallister i’m so sorry that you died. i hope that you are happy now, and free from all their lies.” two days later, rose parker left with a baby in her arms her wife was by her side that day protecting her from harm, for a church had taken notice of the couple giving birth and they were on the sidewalk, questioning their worth: “repent o sinner,” “give him up” “stop living for satan” their chants took on a sinister tone “what’s crooked will be straightened.” the preacher stepped up to rose and she looked him in the eye, and all she felt was pity for the man whose daughter died. “you’re in the wrong and god will judge, your love is just pretend, your baby will grow up a freak and you will meet your end” he spit and spat and yelled a curse but rose kept her head, and when she sat in her car, this is what she said “i met amy grace mcallister when i was just fourteen. she had the kindest spirit that i’d ever seen. and if you want to know what love looks like when it’s fake, find a mirror and reflect, you’re nothing but a snake.” rose raised her son for many years and was buried in the woods, and to this day, the legends sing, of her many goods. the story of amy grace however ended rather sad but still a lesson should be learned about what we label bad: for love is not a list of things to make a god approve but it’s a bearing of one’s soul and heart, speaking its own truth. #poemsfortheresistance
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So many beautiful lives bent and crushed into other people's boxes.