Matthew R. Callies

Obergefell v. Hodges

Before the court, the long denied stood still,

as names once split by law were made to meet,

and what the state had drawn against the will

was asked to yield its lines beneath their feet.

 

Two men, two women, carried what had been

refused in rooms where silence made its rule,

yet here the law was forced to intervene

and name their love no longer as a tool.

 

The word “marriage” crossed the final gate

and ceased to be a privilege of few,

no longer bound to narrow fear or state,

but widened into something held as true.

 

And so the past was not erased, but turned—

a door once shut is now a door returned.