Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine

Your dad said

you were not alone,

that night,

beaten, bleeding,

tied to that fence

under the great curved bowl of

that starry Wyoming sky.

He said your friends were with you:

the moon,

her face turned to you with love,

the stars you gazed at in wonder

with your dad 

as a child on family trips;

the sky you loved was with you,

and so was God.

You were a gentle soldier

in the army for gay rights.

From the ashes of your death,

your mother rose like a Phoenix,

determined that some good,

some healing,

would come out of 

your cruel and senseless loss.

Your mom and dad were there,

when President Obama signed into law

the Matthew Shepard and James Ayrd Jr.

Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

And so your life is remembered,

Matt, as you so longed to be,

as someone whose being here

made a difference.

Matt, you must smile

to know that, now,

just as you once dreamed,

the whole country

knows your name.

An oblique attempt to write about commitment for Sumana's prompt at Midweek Motif. I just watched the documentary Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine, about the young man's brutal beating and subsequent death in 1998, a hate crime perpetrated because of his sexual orientation. His mother became, with that event, committed to having some good, some change, come out of her son's death. She became an activist and speaker for gay rights. She and Matt's father were present when President Obama signed the Hate Crimes Prevention Act in 2009.  The Matthew Shepard Foundation: Embracing Diversity  is here.

source: Wikipedia