Nebraska Queer

For Juliet

F**k you Nebraska, you give me sickness, you took my blood -

I was only 17, small town lesbian. Such witch trial tragedy, you killed my lover.

What is the dirt of me, what is the angel in God rags. She hates f**s.

Someone should have known better. I was small then - 14 candles old.

I was bleeding at 12, my red panties washed the cut of my sexuality.

Hid the smears. My friend carried the harlot gun, I used to share her.

I saw Juliet, at 13, she pecked me -

It tasted like something, not sweet, pepper, or bitter poppy seeds.

He held me down on Easter day, and blacked out my queerness -

He said for me to slit small hearts and touch gray. To know the pure love of His love.

I looked at the clock and the hands felt my chest - my unsung n*****s flattened.

I fell into glass splinters -

Became ice glints -

A little girl of no consequence. I faded plump; my teeth a somnolent metal.

I am drifting off to sleep. She was the everyone -

A kettle whistles in the kitchen. A hair-shirt. A bead of sweat.

I love the taste of a cool Nebraska night. It tastes like orange crush -

Like opium on my lips.

Reviews

[Leigh]

Strong stuff and what a sad story you have told, love the ending like a scene from a road movie - great stuff

[ChemicalMadness]

painful, twisted beauty in these lines....it's something to write with such raw emotion that the reader should, by all rights, want to look away - but wouldn't dare....these were captivating lines with a beat that was at times demanding and at times softly fluttering...near lifeless.

of course, hairshirt and orange crush in the same poem are always going to make me flash briefly to the catalogue of REM songs I have burned in my brain, so there was also a sort of musicality here, intended or not.....this whole piece sang of grit and pain and longing.

CM

[Coyote Poetry]

The poem is amazing. Hard and to the point. Some topics must be direct and honest. Somethings are hidden. I have a gay Step brother. Family don't discuss it. I spend time with him and his mate. They have been together 30 years. People need to leave personal life private. Thank you for the outstanding poetry.
Coyote

[Leslie Philibert]

a tough confessional write that reminds me of the bitterness of Plath and Olds, Excellent.

[Corset]

when I was a child, I fancied myself as looking like David Partridge from the Partridge family, I was just a baby then, so I didn't think about those implications, but when I was 12 and Tony Nethery was the new boy in school, I realized that I was after all female. This incredible write touches upon everything that is wrong with this world, I wish we came with rewind build in, so we can redo or rewind as we see fit, in order to accept the atrocities the occur here on this planet.

[New Dawn]

What a sad, harrowing but beautiful write Rosa.The struggle of being different in a suffocatingly intolerant society. Why is it so impossible for people to accept others without applying applying their own screwed up version of religious doctrine. I have never understood the fascination with or hatred of a persons sexuality. Why should it impact on anyone else. I have had gay and lesbian friends and straight friends - strangely I tend to just think of them as friends :) People misinterpret religion to fit their own agenda I think - it is a shame when religious morals get twisted into religious wrath.
The poem itself is very strong and i particularly liked the final two lines - a fondly remembered almost wistful moment that speaks of hope. Shelley x

[icelandicblue]

This is a fabulous poem. It speaks to small towns, small minds and the inability of one so young to do a damn thing about it. It was also very disturbing and dark in places. There was real beauty in those last two lines. You write beautifully.

[Mary Gale]

Christ, you're a talented girl, where'd you get it? My baby, I love ya Rosie

[Rosalind Gale]

Thanks mom
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