(Tribute to Orlando Victims) The Unhappiest Place - Bobby Jo Valentine

The Unhappiest Place - a poem after orlando.

if you wonder what your gay friends are feeling, this is a little bit of that. please read the poetry, listen to the song, and then call your lgbt brothers and sisters, and tell them how much you love them. this is really a poem with music - it's raw and i didn't edit, but i hope the emotions resonate and help you to hurt less during this crazy time, or at least to understand that others are hurting with you.

The Unhappiest Place

in a bright orlando theme park
a father and his son
walk through a loud arcade
full of little plastic guns
and across town in a night club
no one yet is hurt
but it will soon become one of
the unhappiest places on earth

and fireworks like gunshots
echo out across the sky
while half an hour away
no one dancing plans to die
while one place, at a light show
couple’s arms around each other
while one place in the dark
john takes a bullet for his lover

so james watches johns life drift out
like a tide along the shore
and he says this is unfair
cause I have never loved you more
then right here, right now
and I hope it doesn’t hurt
and james kisses john’s brow
in the unhappiest place on earth

so now my friends are all afraid
on the month that should be pride
and facebook people argue
whether that gun should be a right
and churches cast the vote on
what we do and don’t deserve
and one gun makes fifty ghosts
on the unhappiest place on eart

now out here in California
I think we’ll be alright
I don’t anticipate
A gunmen at my door tonight
But still I hold my partner close
And wonder what our lives are worth
And a world where I don’t know
Is the unhappiest place on earth
The unhappiest place, the unhappiest place
And a world where I don’t know
Is the unhappiest place on earth

So I’m gonna call my brothers
And make sure that they’re alright
I am going to hold my lover
We are going to go outside
And we’re going to come back stronger
But we’ll need some sorrow first
For the fifty lives no longer
At the unhappiest place on earth.

this is a brand new baby song, so it won't feel super polished. but hopefully you connect with the heart at the bottom of it. if you do, please share this with an lgbt friend who's feeling alone, or a straight person who doesn't understand, or a person hung up on the gun rights issue....hopefully this will affect them, and if enough of us are affected, hopefully we can help the world change a bit.

Speaking of changing the world, there are a few things you can do...

First, please donate to a local LGBT charity or organization for at-risk youth. The Trevor Project is amazing, so is It Gets Better.

Second, you can support gay artists who are using their voice to try and make a difference. I'm one but there are hundreds of others.

The best way to support my art is at:
  / bobbyjovalentine  

Much love,
bobby
http://www.bobbyjovalentine.com