I Hate You Out of Love (2020 Pongo Poetry Prize Honorable Mention)

I HATE YOU OUT OF LOVE

 by Maeve Marie, age 16
Submitted on Pongo’s website

I hate you out of love
I do this for you. I do this for God
I help you. This is out of love

I was taught to yearn for the prince of my dreams while
there sat a gorgeous princess next to me
But the moment they saw my hand
in hand with hers
was the moment I questioned if there was a God

They diagnosed me ill while religiously pouring holy water
onto us as if they could pray away what God made

We buried ourselves away
fearfully hiding, fearfully loving
Punishing our instinctual way
 of natural love

Made us believe we were wrong
Taught how to invalidate with ease

I declared myself a liar

I deemed her a falsifier

They put ashes on our forehead
but could barely touch us out of disgust

They purged the demons
 that we called our love

I bellow out God hates me. He hates
my love. Where is this God of love
while you tear apart ours?

They reply with a smile so high

I do this for you
I do this for God
I help you. This is out of love


Artist Statement

“I found Pongo after Google searching for more poetry opportunities. Pongo gave me an outlet for my writing and like many other authors, I feel that the whole point of writing is to give yourself and others an outlet for anything and everything. This poem is very special to me because it explains the frustrations on how even the most “loving” communities are still unaccepting of the LGBTQ+community who are still faced with hateful oppression to this day.”