LGBTQ+ Poem: Outlaw Love (Black & Queer), by Shani-Angela Hervey

I.
there’s something different
about loving a Black woman
when you are a Black woman

something outlaw

something so alive
it hums in your teeth
and dares the world to flinch

It’s walking into rooms
where no one knows what to call you

and not giving a fuck

It’s catching eyes in restaurants
and throwing stares
that say
we’re still here

because this ain’t rainbow capitalism
it ain’t ally-approved affection
this is love that got jumped and kept swinging
love that hid in parked cars
and sometimes pretended to be straight

If it meant being safe

II.
we don’t kiss
we mark territory

she ain’t no secret
she’s the thunder I wake up to
hands that don’t ask

because they know

our love ain’t quiet
it’s tactical
we love like two ghosts
haunting the American dream

she doesn’t just see me
she reads me
like
a stolen diary
full
of secrets and sirens

she knows how I like my lies
honest

how I like my pain
shared

how I like my body
worshipped
and without rules

III.
we don’t date
we conspire

she smells like gunpowder and lavender
laughs with her chest
fucks like she got something to prove
and then cooks grits with salt
pepper
and bare feet
like a victory meal

we love in shorthand
touch like coded language

no labels
no pressure

this love be a riot

IV.
this ain’t about attraction
this is allegiance
war strategy
with tongue and teeth

we don’t fall in love
we take it

we made a home in each other’s mouths
when the world turned on us

we are the architects of intimacy
assassins of shame

we kiss in daylight
hold hands in red states
fuck like a middle finger
to your fragility

your gaze never earned the right
to see us

nah
we don’t need your politics
we are the politics
your think pieces can’t hold us
laws can’t define us
you will not police this

not this joy
not this rage
not this love that unearths

we are not a spectacle
we are the consequence

and we ain’t asking
outlaw love