Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.
GPOY As Rainbowfrog.gif
by Aerik Francis
pixelated recognition–
………….the image clicks
………….………….into place – my uncanny
………….reflection as a frog, awaiting.
will iEver be a person [again]?
………….must iAlways only be neck-up?
………….………….am iHead, stoic, or am iNeck
………….eternally on a swivel?
………….………….will iBe made to leap?
………….………….………….will my touch dilate eyes
………….………….like a hallucinogenic rush?
………….am iOnly strobing rainbow?
………….………….am iSmiling? does it matter
………….amidst this prismatic outburst?
in the scheme of things iAm merely meme
………….………….degrees separate from the me
………….-me that begat the meme.
………….………….fast flashes seen from the side
………….………….………….of your eye – maybe
………….………….iAm just speedy
………….periphery, undwindling
………….………….pigment – is this why
………….you always ask my colors?
& if iDo tell you –
………….again – am iDoomed
………….………….………….to repeat?
Copyright © 2021 by Aerik Francis. This poem first appeared in HAD.
About the Author
Aerik Francis is a Queer Black & Latinx poet based in Denver, Colorado, USA. Aerik is the author of the recently published chapbook BODYELECTRONIC(Trouble Department 2022). Selected by Dorothy Chan as the winner of the 2022 chapbook contest, Aerik’s second chapbook MISEDUCATION is forthcoming from New Delta Review in 2023. Aerik is the recipient of poetry fellowships from Canto Mundo and The Watering Hole, as well as a poetry reader for Underblong poetry journal and an event coordinator for Slam Nuba. Aerik’s work can be found on their website phaentompoet.com
Queer Poem a Day
- Day 1: Self Portrait as a Body, a Sea by Donika Kelly
- Day 2: Birthday Suits by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
- Day 3: Obsessions by Gabriel Ojeda-Sagué
- Day 4: The Baby Inside My Baby by Nomi Stone
- Day 5: To Be Saved by CM Burroughs
- Day 6: At the New York City AIDS Memorial by Stefania Gomez
- Day 7: Love in the Time of PrEP by Jaques Rancourt
- Day 8: The Morning After by Ellen Bass
- Day 9: Argument of Situations by Shangyang Fang
- Day 10: Ode to Sneakers by Tory Adkisson
- Day 11: Boombox Ode: Enjoy the Silence
- Day 12: Soon by Makshya Tolbert
- Day 13: Photograph by Jenny George
- Day 14: Salt Lake City by Christian Gullette
- Day 15: Humpty Dumpty by Spencer Reece
- Day 16: The Antihero by Megan Fernandes
- Day 17: On Growing Bored with Synonyms for the Apocalypse, I Rename It Carl… by C. Russell Price
- Day 18: All My Friends are Sad & Bright by Cameron Awkward-Rich
- Day 19: 2000 miles and this is the love letter I send you over text by Noa/h Fields
- Day 20: Book VI from The Queerness of Eve by Emilia Phillips
- Day 21: Oracle by Ari Banias
- Day 22: gxrl gospel iv: beast of a southern wild by Aurielle Marie
- Day 23: Let There Be Pride by Richard Blanco
- Day 24: Jacob Riis Memorial Beach by Stephen Ira
- Day 25: from Dependence, the Joistrix / How you are made by Emily Martin
- Day 26: The Need for Repitition by Jim Whiteside
- Day 27: Arm’d and Fearless by Julian Gewirtz
- Day 28: Polyamory by Madeleine Cravens
- Day 29: GPOY as Rainbowfrog.gif by Aerik Francis
- Day 30: Gay Epithalamium by Benjamin Garcia
Queer Poem-a-Day is directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Deerfield Public Library. Music for this second year of our series is the first movement, Schéhérazade, from Masques, Op. 34, by Karol Szymanowski, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission.
