we were kids when we met
docile creatures eager to beget
change, yet, unable to forgo the pains of a youth subjected to rage 
So,
we’d color our bodies with sin 
hoping to release the demons let in
we’d color our bodies with sin
praying to displace the torment from within 
we’d color our bodies with sin
desperately trying to renounce the guilt ascribed to this skin
but  
colors fade and faces change and bodies age
and so we learn to reclaim our sins and to adorn them with glitter, worn without chagrin
we are prideful 
but 
knowledge is fleeting 
and
pride is elusive 
and
coloring brings addiction 
and 
colors fade and faces change and bodies age
and life must be sustained 
and so colors fade
once vibrant and thriving with possibility 
now senile and clutching, eagerly to a skewing reality
my dearest you will always be my fave 
but
colors fade and faces change and bodies age
and life must be sustained

we were kids when we met
docile, eager, wanting to beget.

About the artist...

Jerome Riley Jr. is a queer actor/ writer/ performer, who is just trying to figure it out. They are a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, where they earned a BFA in Musical Theatre with a minor in Women & Gender Studies. They were most recently seen in the world premiere of Trevor the Musical at Writers Theatre.

Want to see more of Jerome’s work?

Check out their work from previous issues:

• An Ode to Sister, Who Has No Other Name from Issue XV: Sisters

• Take the Plunge from Issue XI: Diving In

• Intuition from Issue V: Fireworks