[image description: a poem text that reads,
“NOT GAY AS IN HAPPY BUT QUEER AS IN
bared teeth. As in celebration. As in
carving the body out of the carcass. Not gay
as in rainbow cop car for a policed pride parade,
thin cis men washing the walls
white – not gay as in
NO FATS, NO FEMMES –
but trans as in -cendence. Queer
as in scribbling sharpie
over the shadow of the she I was never
going to be. Fag as in piercing
my ears with my lover’s Mars earrings.
Tranny as in tracing the chest’s twin lines,
the ricochet of the real name, the loving
someone else even when you don’t love
yourself – Transfag
as in T-dick. Shot & chaser. Building bodies
out of boats untethered to the banks of bend
yourself until you break so I won’t be made
uncomfortable. Transfag as in fuck your
“female erasure.” Transfag as in stomping your
boots to the beat of I am here, real, alive.
Not gay as in
gunshot, left to bleed on the concrete,
save only yourself, sneering.
But queertransfag as in
echoing in every hallway. Scratched out
of the history books. Pushed to the back of every
line. Making our own lines anyways. Writing
our books. Building hallways.
Queertransfag as in wrapping
the wound. Celebrating the scar.”
/end id]
