Elana Lev Friedland
On Driving East from Colorado While Reading As Visibly Queer
August 2019
Blessed is this boyhood//of mine, praised//are the dark//patches beneath armpits, curling,//
the eyebrow arches grown in//and breasts so small//as to have been called//concave//nestled
beneath a sports bra//as I move past//the narrowed glances of shopkeepers//deep in Jesus country.
I do not want to be like a butterfly//splayed ochre upon a windshield//that is to say made
a dead thing with innards glistening//even if my organs//are far more//eloquent than any slogan//
stitched upon stacks of red hats//on the shelves of these gas station stores.
The whole of me is composed of a great//and gay//many parts, broad//
shoulders bared//beyond any box,//driving,//above ground.
Elana Lev Friedland‘s writing has appeared in Cartridge Lit, Cosmonauts Avenue, Salt Hill, The Rumpus, Black Warrior Review, and elsewhere. They are a writer and performance artist. Find them online at elanalevfriedland.com.
SUBMIT to What Rough Beast via our SUBMITTABLE site.
If you enjoyed today’s poem and you value What Rough Beast, consider making a donation to Indolent Books, a nonprofit poetry press.