Notes for an Elegy

[Lizzie]

Hi, Tranquility. A couple of things stood out to me. 

Our mother mourned his childhood
all of her life. -- Strikes me as a reference to the Virgin Mary, only the great mother didn't have choices. That makes the understatement here significant. 

A gay teenager in the 1950s
Forced to join the Marines, to make him a man, -- These lines say what could take pages to say. Well done.

His was a lifelong crucifixion.  -- This felt like a punch to the chest. A genuinely horrifying image. Ties together the religious imagery. 

They say that, as humans, we focus too much on the perpetrator and forget to first restore the victim. In that vein, I appreciate seeing a piece from this POV. 

Might be too soon to workshop this one, but I'll certainly comment on it if/when you do.