Love is a Jewel

Love is a jewel

Sappho’s ruby red rhinestone 

Emerald of elegance 

Encompassing countless forms

Love is the jewel that is 

Straight, curved, crooked, supple

She is not uniform

She is not cruel

The jewel love, however, that bedazzled rainbow,

She might be twisted 

By false prophets peddling distortions 

Their moral panic mimicking moral dissent  

Hate speech dressed in free speech 

Theocracy presented as democracy  

Outside agitators disguised as caring comrades

White privilege appropriating minority struggle 

As in erasure festooned with righteousness 

I adore seeing through these disguises 

For doing so reminds me 

That knowledge is power

Power is love 

And love is a jewel

Inside of us all