Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.
Pride Month
with a line by Jacques Rancourt
by Shelley Wong
It is June & I read about having grace to forgive those
who would condemn us. It is June & a man reads a poem
where the father becomes a dying stag
& the son says there is something
I need to tell you. It was June when I was awake
past midnight gathering news
about the Pulse nightclub shooting. I fell asleep
knowing I would wake to walk against grief
in waves. It is June & I am happy
that Tegan & Sara will appear
in San Francisco or Oakland.
It is June & I have never prayed to any god.
It was New York in the 2000s
when my ex ran the backstage chaos
at the Pride pier dance. We slid through
a sea of men with shaved chests.
The songs hardly had words & the bass
shuddered into our bodies. Fireworks
climaxed over the Hudson & the crowd rocked
& roared back. I stood in a tropical sundress in the VIP section
surrounded by so many barely dressed people
double-kissing my face saying happy Pride
& where is your wife—
Copyright © 2021 by Shelley Wong. Used with the permission of the author. Originally published in the Kenyon Review Online in February 2018.
Shelley Wong is the author of As She Appears (YesYes Books, 2022), winner of the 2019 Pamet River Prize, and the chapbook RARE BIRDS (Diode Editions, 2017). Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Gulf Coast, Kenyon Review, and The New Republic. She has received a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from MacDowell, Kundiman, and Vermont Studio Center. She is an affiliate artist at Headlands Center for the Arts and lives in San Francisco. For more: www.shelley-wong.com
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 our series is from Excursions Op. 20, Movement 1, by Samuel Barber, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by a generous donation from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library.