Message to Larry
You had the strength to wear lipstick, mascara and jewelry to school, despite being assigned to the boy's locker room. That cliché - the world wasn't ready for you - unforgivably, true.
The reverend called you a complex masterpiece, and he was correct. Your pictures tell a story as eloquently as Miles Davis's trumpet. You skate like a princess in the rink's frozen waters; your cool shades have you looking extra hard south of the border. Whose idea was it to cut your long wavy tresses? Did you pick out those 1st-day-of-school hott purple suspenders? I wonder whether you got in fights with your mama over the pink gloves you wore on your trip to DC. You were both handsome and beautiful in your camo shirt (sans your two front teeth!).
I wish there were better words to for me to use, so I didn't have to pick a gender to describe you. Because I would have been happy to know you regardless of your pronoun preference. Boy, girl, both or neither, you deserve to be here right now, sharing your voice's cadence; to realize all your dreams and dazzle us with your brilliance; then to grow old, sit in your rocking chair and tell people what it was like when you danced in your high-heeled boots at EO Green Junior High. We should all have gotten the chance to know you better. We could have learned something.
I hope the child who killed you comes to understand how special you are. I hope he realizes how scared he was of your sacred elegance, and he falls to his knees each night for forgiveness.
http://www.rememberlarry.com/
_____
there's a war
if the guns are just too tall for you
we'll find you're something small to use
- Lupe Fiasco, Little Weapon