That night the street remembered how to speak,
when silence cracked beneath a flashing light,
and voices rose from corners once too weak,
to claim the dark and turn it into right.
No permission signed the air that night,
no rule could keep identity confined,
the city’s polished story lost its height,
as names refused the cages they were assigned.
A door once shut became a line of fire,
not flame of ruin, but of being seen,
and every step grew louder, lifted higher,
as history shifted what it might have been.
Now June still carries echoes through the street,
where defiance and survival meet.
-
Author:
Matthew R. Callies (
Offline) - Published: June 28th, 2026 00:11
- Comment from author about the poem: Poem number 28 for Pride Month. It was on this day in 1969 that the Stonewall Riots began. They were a series of spontaneous riots and demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning of June 28 at the Stonewall Inn. For more context, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonewall_riots
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Comments2
Matthew this is another very well composed poem in a narrative form that highlights an actual incident and immortalizes it in verse. Nicely rhymed and metered it flows well and its length is a strong point. Leaving the subject vague initially and gradually expanding upon it heightens its interest. Well done and a fave
Matthew, this really moved me. You capture the courage and resolve of that night without losing sight of the humanity at its center. As it happens, my own poem today (Sunday) also remembers an LGBTQia+ person from history whose work too often stood in the shadows, so this resonated on multiple levels. Beautiful work, my friend. 🌹🖤🙏🕯️🐦⬛
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