Wide – #poetscorner

#poetscorner is a feature in which poets share a poem of theirs and discuss the inspiration behind it.

I think when you are brown skinned, queer as f*ck, poor, and young: writing is kind of a survival instinct. I always used to ask my mother for a journal. In there, I would pour out imaginary stories, alternative universes, different lives to my own – and it became the most relaxing part of my day. I never thought I could write. I had no examples of people that look like me that were called “writers”. In fact, I still wonder if I can write, but I just think I’ve started to care less about the answer. As I started to grow into my skin, queerness and body – writing became an act of warfare, as well as survival. I started doing open mic nights to rooms of straight white men, and submitting poetry to online journals and books. I remember one day I started thinking “why do I have to perform to them? Why can’t I make my own crowd?” – and that is when I started creating my own shows, spaces and finding more queer centred nights. From then, writing and performing became an act of rejoice, a moment to share words with community – and now i’m kind of hooked…

This piece, Wide, is a reflection upon being outside the binary. It focuses upon the harsh moment of stepping outside, something for which folks outside of gender binaries – can be an exhausting and dangerous task. I wanted to use this poem to focus on the juxtaposition of feeling 100% Beyonce level-hot, to going outside and instantly feeling judged. To rejoice in my moment of freedom in front of the mirror, and heal from talking about the coldness of outside. Wide is from a collection of my new work titled ‘reclaiming my body’.