LGBTQ+ Poem: I’m Thinking of a Queer // 20 Questions, by Grady Boris

I am thinking of a queer, not just any of the femme men
not the ones who flaunt it all, the ones who keep one foot
in and one out, the closet having a glass door

1- does that mean it’s me?

I am thinking of a queer, who’s roommate kissing, passing-
-partner-ish persuasions lead to a life as a double agent

2- does this person ever live one life?

I am thinking of this person, summoning their supple lips
and masculine hips, a person that can’t make up their damn
mind

3- is a hetero-norm spy an exhilarating existence?

I am thinking of the men’s in dresses, the women’s painted beard
of drag, all but the cigarette similar word missing from their tags

4- is the closet a tomb or an amphitheater for this one?

I am thinking of a person, many people, no people
the ones where the labels draw the borders, offer an
order that’s legible and legitimate

5- is it legal?

I am thinking, thinking too much perhaps, do the thoughts
become overwrought with ideas of brilliance, delusions of
grandeur, of utopic paradise where all fit in boxes and no-
-body stretches over the line, out of the catch-all contraptions

6 – 7 – is utopia the only way forward? Eugenics-esque imagery?

I am thinking of this person, back from some to one, from many
to none

8 – must you speak in riddles to describe this person?

I see this person all the time, seeing their mind’s eye opening
as the pencil hits the page, fingers around brass, brush canvas

9 – 10 – 11 – Shakespeare? Louis Armstrong? Frida Kahlo?

No, no, and no. I am thinking of an artist by passion not pro-
-fession, confessing this love of humanities in the confines of
their own home

12 – how can I guess if there’s no one to fit yes?

There is an answer, follow closely. I am thinking again of a person
comprised of parts that make them whole, parts and cogs and gears
turning to make it all work.

13 – is this man metal or this metal man?

This person is a man, AMAB, he/they, they/them,
tight roping across the trouble of gender but stuck in
perpetual tension, seeing the view from between

14- is this a man?

They wish to walk away from their start, to find
what their heart saunters towards, in and out of
here and there, here and now, now and then, then
it’s them

15- is this person trans?

They long for no longer man, but not for
femme, stuck on this rope we will call Claire’s
bridge between genders, though bridge too gen-
-erous a term for this thin line

16- is this person non-binary or questioning?
Questioning is everyone, everyone is questioning
questions is what got us to this question, only leading
to continuous confusion and a pandora’s box of pandering
possibilities

17- are they queer or making a mockery of it all?

No mockery is made of this person, wishing for people to come
together, conjoin, conjugate into a one of many sums

18- Is this person thinking they are more than one?

They do not think so, they wish so, know so
would be easier instead of having to throw
these different parts into different boxes for
different folks, different rooms, different lines
to be walked, over, and back, never resting on the
line of limbo where they want to be

19- Is this person safe?

Safety is an illusion, an illusion of safety is the box
boxes upon boxes meant to make a prison cell seem
inviting, luring the person to within its walls and closing
the lid, only opening once a part has been taken as prize

20- Is this ever going to end?