Our Queer Kids
A poem for our LGBTQ+ Youth
Between locker-slammed prophecies and
cafeteria psalms, they provide combinations
to ultraviolet funhouses —
Quantum superpositions of mascara and masks,
dancing through the liminal, on parade.
***
No more pejorative fairies in chrysalis cocoons,
who split our tongues on “oh-be-a-fine-girl” stars,
swallowing silver spoons of mercurial weight;
they’re as ancient as the hills,
yet fresh as morning glories breaking through
our windowsills.
***
Their bodies: sacred temples with washable-painted
owned slurs; they transform into prisms,
catching light stars on the edge of our existential
DNA, rain-coiled in tampered-with tubes
and our plebeian, useless paperweights.
***
In gymnasium diaspora, forbidden bathrooms
scatter among our boomer kin; they flush
through coruscate-coded signals flashing in our skies.
Each closet a universe, each squeal holds a sword —
They’re writing new mythologies, no archangels
came to proclaim.
***
Watch them shed their exoskeletons of shame,
each deadname a new bark etched in
triangle-tattoos, like bioluminescent inks
beneath their party lines.
***
And let them call us mother constellation; let them
call us strange; they’re hard-boned in sneakers,
orchestrating orchid metamorphoses so fast
we try to capture them, but--
***
Each of their heartbeats is a revolution; each of
their breaths, a warfare won,
as we paint ourselves in colors stolen from
Native binaries, in trees, bearing more strange fruit.
***
Yes, they sneak out of our suburban homes, paved
with stones thrown by lottery straights,
and no simple categorizations can be made
anymore. So, summon the supremist of courts.
***
With unshaven hearts and necks and hypotheses, they
loom into beings we never thought to name,
and they keep our dolls safe by unlocking doors —
coming to wash our feet in glitter.
***
The gods are very pleased.
Let us call upon our inner beasts and not
tame Pegasus wings.
***
Accept our queer kids, and find ourselves Here.
About the Creator
Paul Aaron Domenick
My writing speaks for itself, but in exchange with others, it speaks louder. Thank you for reading and responding to my stories. I enjoy reading yours, usually in the middle of the night :-)
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Comments (2)
Beautiful poem
Paul, this is so amazing, I’m drunk on allusion, blown away by your brilliance.