Bruce Snead

That’s the name 

To be found

On social media;

Not Bruce Lee,

Not Bruce Leon,

But Bruce Snead,

And perhaps this one’s 

The real one,

And, well, 

All I really have to tell you

Is even if I barely knew you,

I’m glad I knew you,

A man in the time 

I learned many things,

Who symbolized

Many things,

But a man,

All the same,

A man like any other,

In a strange collection of friends,

And in the end,

That’s who you were,

And I’m sorry it took me so long

To think of you that way.

That is the shame

I now correct,

Not that I saw you 

As the pimp,

As the token,

Or even that I didn’t even see you

As the dancer,

But that for so long

I saw you as the victim,

And yet there you were

And there you are,

A man among men,

A friend among friends,

And I never allowed you 

To be merely that,

And I didn’t see it that way

Until now,

And this original sin

Now acknowledged

Rests lighter on my soul.