This collection has a similar spirit to Randall Mann’s work – speaking honestly of the sex gay men have – the joy and the toxicity it can bring.
From the poem Near The Sheep Gate the lines “… / But had we been / born twenty years / back, we might be / counted among / the dead…” certainly ring too true to me.
The poem I Don’t Go To Gay Bars Anymore speaks of the loss of queer majority spaces, and also touches on the ways that queer life have been coded as being an exclusively urban experience, these are big themes that come up increasing. It is something to celebrate that we can live lives openly beyond the queer spaces of the past but the move from majority spaces to inclusive spaces does bring a loss with it – and there is a link to that second idea about the urban, to claim the right to be queer in a rural setting is important – but even if fully accepted being the only gay in the village is different from living with your tribe around you.
No comments:
Post a Comment