Playing a simple song with variations
Something I made up easy to play
Alone by myself fingering the notes
Enjoying the sound of my clarinet
Reviving a kind of muscle memory
An upbeat happy tune tinged with sadness
Missing my mother who encouraged me
Before death took her from that boy
She who transported me to and from
Those many weekly music lessons
And sometimes art classes for me to learn
Drawing and painting with watercolors
Her leaving me with my homophobic father
Mouthing his slurs and disparaging remarks
Who never once came to hear me play
Yet I gained something more being on my own
How he kept silent when I took him years later
To see Breaking the Code performed on Broadway
About the genius and persecution of Alan Turing
Making a statement opposing my father's bigotry
As I string the clear note phrases together
Into an elementary composition
A lifetime later I can relate to Pride Month
Celebrating the song of our selves
