Bisexual Ephemera I |
I ghost through towns like a stranger’s obituary a subtle wanting to be seen I ghoul across garish, sun-swept asphalt loath the jaw tightened in the shop windows I smear my name in freshly poured cement on the cusp of nightfall clawing initials to linger awhile longer here I hold everything human & yet am less than man. I unlearn my want to make the world part & make room for me. Feel me wisp & float by, morose as an unmarked grave Feel me tender & brutish, call me something untamed Feel me sparse & haunted, unable to claim but one face To be human is to wholly contradict the shadow of God. To be beast is to innately know the shape of hunger. |
Bisexual Ephemera II |
I am: your mother’s favorite male social whore your dry dream of certain friendship a muddled puddle of masculinity the fevered-dancefloor fantasy of a faded-cut punk the definition in a language of multiple fuzzy definitions I will: confuse the flustered fuck out of you in a dive bar break down the barrier between machismo and delicate get drunk off of sincerity before the liquor drowns me I won’t: be Mr.-steal-your-girl or Mr.-hit-on-your-boyfriend let you realize I have a weak spot between my head and heart I need: to be watered, like anyone else, with sweat from time to time validation that I won’t wake up a murdered malignancy absolution that God is a hybrid text in braille about love for you to know I still bleed maroon and breathe the same Let me: clarify this. Just because I’m a contradiction doesn’t mean I’m not real |
Samuel J Fox is a bisexual poet and essayist living in North Carolina. He is a poetry editor at (b)OINK and poetry editor at Orson's Review. He appears in Grimoire Magazine, The Occulum, and Moonchild Magazine; he is forthcoming in Former Cactus, Dirty Paws Poetry, and Mannequin Haus. Find him on Twitter (@samueljfox).
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