Tuesday, 21 July 2020

I am Nobody’s Nigger by Dean Atta

Out of print but can be found on Abe 

after reading Pink Flamingo I had to read this Dean’s other published work.

To have poems about gay sex, unambiguously about sex is delightful – even when the feelings are complicated – not all the sex is good, not all of it is life affirming – but it is spoken about with honesty – we are given access to truth.


One poem…


More than this


I knew, before we’d even spoken

My skinny-jean-clad punk-rock poet

Tattooed and pierced

Painted and punctured

Denim, metal and ink

Pint glass in one hand

Poem in the other

Mouthfuls of beer dislodge illicit imagery

And forbidden metaphors

Crumpled A4 sheet casually discarded

As the last lyrics leave his lips


He leaves me naked

On a tobacco and cannabis speckled rug

On his living-room floor

Wrapped up in a blanket, damp with semen, lubricant

And the cold tea we spilled in our frantic lovemaking

‘I’ve got to go to work,’ he says’ ‘You can let yourself out.’


I guess it’s nice to know I can get what I want

But maybe I should want more than this.

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