All I Knew Is That I Loved You

I didn’t understand you as a child.

The way you talked…crossed your legs and held your cigarette…

You only came to visit a few times…short visits… but I had so much fun laughing with you.

I knew something was different ….

But all I knew is that you were my uncle and I loved you.

I saw you from across the church… it was quiet and the huge cross loomed

                at the front; I saw the anguish in your eyes…wondered what you were thinking.

But they say you could not have been a Christian…they say it is impossible.

I did not understand your lifestyle…

But all I knew is that you were my uncle and I loved you.

I heard you enjoyed your life in California and that you had a huge record collection.

It disappeared or was sold when you died...alone surrounded by a few friends.

If I had it to do over again, I would have flown to see you before your life slipped away.

Now a room full of lives has been lost in a senseless hate-filled rampage.

Lives gone in an instant because of evil…a punishment inflicted by a single judge and jury

                with a coward’s weapon.

You could have been in that crowd…and I could have lost you.

Some self-righteous ones would say it was not a great loss and it was a form of judgement for a lifestyle that repulsed them.

But I disagree.

Your heart beat just as mine and you loved differently than me…

But all I know is that you were my uncle and I loved you.

And I think about you now more than ever.