Equal Marriage: In memory of the countless dead who could not marry

Our writer pens a victory ode in celebration of today's vote

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Come join us here, the trillion souls

Who lived and loved and longed alone

The decent men and decent women

Whose passions slept unknown.

We ask you now to grip our hands

And rise up from the dirt

Then shake the mud they threw at you

And bury all your hurt.

The pious priests are shadows now

The bible leafs have curled

Your sins were never yours to own

They rotted with your world.

We think of you, the shamefaced girls

Who wept upon your beds

And suffered years of wretched sex

Whilst crying in your heads.

And all the men, who loved in sin

Though caring for their wives

They hid their passion and hid the truth

And hid for all their lives.

The beaten son with broken hopes

The daughter, shunned and damned

The hopeless children ostracised

When the family door was slammed.

To all the cretins in your homes

Who sniggered at our pride

We throw your doctrines in a pyre

A trillion bibles wide.

The days when poofters had to hide

Have gone now, they are dead

The chance to love has been unlocked

By the freedom that you dread.

I'm thinking of our soldiers now

The queers who called for change

And marched their way past Parliament

When no hope seemed in range.

They stood alone. They stared them down

Though damning words were hurled

And marched and fought and held their ground

As the rainbow flag unfurled.

I could not love without their fight

I would never have been free

Without their war to let me live

As the man I'm meant to be.

So gather here, the trillion souls

Who lived and loved and longed alone

Who heard us calling from the light

To rise up and be known.

We watch them lift from poisoned earth

And stare up to the stars

The tortured souls, all born too soon

Still carrying their scars.

They mingle with the wedding guests

And think about their lives

Whilst watching in bewilderment

Gay husbands and gay wives.

Justice wrote our marriage vows

And freedom is our host

The congregation of lost lives

Can help us raise a toast.

To all those trillion wasted souls

Who lived and loved and longed alone

The decent men and decent women

Whose passions slept unknown.

The ancient man who died in tears

A frightened queer, a fake

The secret dyke whose heart was dead

We marry for your sake.

You may have lived through cruelty

Been tortured, hurt and shamed

But today the bigots and the dim

Have had their voices tamed.

We won't forget your torture, nor

The cruelty that you faced

So with this ring, we promise you

Your life was not a waste.

You are with us, the trillion souls

Who lived and loved and longed alone

The decent men and decent women

Whose passions slept unknown.