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Day 10: Male Beauty by Richie Hofmann

Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.

Male Beauty

by Richie Hofmann

I bought a bag of hard green pears today.
I came home and sat in our room
listening to music for hours,
solo piano, things from France, from the beginning
of the century.
When we were very young, your forgiveness
humiliated me. I knew
you would be asleep when I got back.
It is night outside
and raining. It is the same night
that fills the ruins.
You are naked, drowsy, lost. Stay like that.
In my favorite recordings,
you can hear the pianist breathing.


Copyright © 2020 by Richie Hofmann. Used with the permission of the author. Originally appeared in The Sewanee Review (Summer 2020.)


About the Author

Author headshotRichie Hofmann‘s new book of poems, A Hundred Lovers, will be published by Knopf in 2022. A former Stegner Fellow, he currently teaches at Stanford University. For more: richiehofmann.com

 

Queer Poem a Day graphic

2021 Queer Poem a Day


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.

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