Pantoum for Matthew Shepard

Matthew Shepard
young gay youth
from Laramie Wyoming
beaten & tortured,

a young gay youth
tied to a fence
after being beaten & tortured
for eighteen hours

tied to a fence
by two hateful bastards
for eighteen hours
cut down in his prime

by two hateful bastards
he was a student at the University of Wyoming
cut down in his prime
who studied Political Science

as a student at the University of Wyoming
they left him for dead
the Political Science major
who was tied to a fence

and left for dead
in the winter’s cold
when he was tied to die on a fence
where a cycler riding by, thought he was a scarecrow

in the winter’s cold
a young gay youth hangs in the dead of winter
where a cycler rides by thinking he’s a scarecrow
in a field flooded with blood