they censor the word queer like it’s something that needs to be kept unsaid
something that’s offensive
funny cause queer is who I am
forget the fact that I don’t feel like I fit under any of the letters in glbt
why do they want to mark our differences anyways?
“No you’re a G!”
“I’m a B.”
“Oh and he’s a T..”
There is a difference between recognizing identities and being divided.
Queer doesn’t rank people in order of importance.
Queer isn’t always white gay and rich.
Queer doesn’t sound like a sandwich.
I heard a person say that loving a disabled body was the queerest thing you could do
My friends decided that this was t-shirt message material
Forget the fact that I love women,
The curves, the fierceness, the power to express any sentiment
I love crooked disabled bodies even more
I guess that makes me as queer as queer can be
Society tells us we’re deformed
American “Ugly laws” used to keep us out of public sight
We’re broken, we’re twisted
We’re beautiful
They want us to believe we have DO NOT USE warning label plastered across our face
Like we’re not supposed to desire, touch, or love
What a lie
If we do fuck, if we do kiss, it’s only in the quiet softness of a movie
a non-disabled person showing “kindness” by loving a disabled person
The audience is supposed to go “aww love really CAN conquer all”
Or feel squishy, hot-cheeked and uncomfortable.
You know you want to have a blind guy go “come here girl, I want to touch your face and see you”
you know you want to see if we picked up an extra sense
because we’re missing a limb
sight
hearing
something like that
Oh maybe I wasn’t supposed to think these thoughts…
—-
this poem is based on the idea that loving disabled bodies is radical because it’s so taboo and sexually/socially deviant. biodiverse resistance and conversations with friends are what inspired these thoughts.
7 Comments
September 26, 2007 at 1:07 am
I really love this.
I love your truthfulness. And courage to voice what some people can only think, and what others can only hope to succeed in ignoring.
September 26, 2007 at 10:56 am
All my younger friends use the word queer and I have seen several disabled men hook up with able-bodied women. I love how you OWN who you are!
September 27, 2007 at 11:21 am
I love the word Queer! I think it is radical and in your face.
October 24, 2007 at 7:26 am
I identify myself as queer. There really isn’t a word for those who love to love people with disabilities. I am less interested in gender than I am in disability culture. Someone who can share that with me, the breaking of all the taboos associated with loving people with “missing” limbs, people with tracheotomies, people with scars and walkers and canes…Well, it’s something that no man or woman who isn’t disabled can match.
October 24, 2007 at 7:27 am
By the way, your poem was brilliant and echoes a lot of what I feel.
November 29, 2007 at 11:39 am
I just found your blog, and just wanted to say- amazing post.
July 14, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Do you know this poem is on the syllabus for the “Intro to Sexual and Gender Diversity” class at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario for spring 09? It is, and it’s cool, and it’s a right on poem.
Eli