the gays make plans for brunch
and when the heteros are upsettero because said gays are late
the gays explain that they meant 11 AM G.S.T.
G.S.T. is a queer unit of time
which means Gay Standard Time
or whenever is convenient for my gay ass
G.S.T. continues to perplex horologists
(horologists are time scientists
but also gays that fuck for science)
because the only consistent thing about G.S.T.
is it’s inconsistency
the queens are always late
the dykes an hour early
the bisexuals seem divided
and the queers intentionally input it wrong in their calendar
to avoid having to give you a straight reason for not wanting to attend
clinical psychology and C.S. Lewis tell us
that closets are temporal paradoxes
both realm of fantasy
and wormholes of trauma
nailed together with Christian theology
and the fetishizing of innocence -
same thing, really
he was only five when they began
to groom him as a lady killer
began to dress her modestly
for family gatherings with sticky fingered uncles
they tell us we can find absolution
in repressing the cardinal sin of desire
so we come to believe forgiveness
will move the hearts of our abusers
who guide us in building pyres out of fags
so they can substitue their violence for our sacrifice
the Isaacs among us that survive
cursed descendants of the desert
they who will laugh as wild things
wretched heathens and attention seeking horologists
are only children
robbed of a past
drowning in the future
and arriving whenever is convenient for them
Caleb Ferganchick is a rural, queer, slam poet activist and author of The Secret of Sunflowers (2021) and Poetry Heels (2018). His work has been featured and published by Western Colorado Writer’s Forum (2021), South Broadway Ghost Society (2020, 2021), “Slam Ur Ex ((the podcast))” (2020), and the Colorado Mesa University Literary Review. He organizes the annual Slamming Bricks poetry slam competition in honor of the 1969 Stonewall Riots and serves as a board member for Western Colorado Writer’s Form and Mutual Aid Partners. A SUP river guide and speech and debate coach, Caleb also dreams of establishing a queer commune with a river otter rescue and falconry. He lives in Grand Junction, Colorado.
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Caleb Ferganchick 