8.10 / October 2013 :: Queer 4

Much is being written about diversity in literary journals and magazines. It is a crucial conversation, certainly one worth having again and again. When PANK Magazine asked me to edit their 4th annual Queer Issue, I said yes knowing this was my opportunity to show up on a topic I've been more than vocal about. As submissions rolled in, I gave each entry the thoughtfulness I would want an editor to have with my work. A few things started to trouble me, mainly the lack of submissions by queer women, by queer black writers and queer writers of color, by trans-identified people, by queer, disabled writers. I took to my social networks and assured submitters that diverse and experimental submissions were welcomed and wanted. I asked for writing that wrestled the dominant narratives of queer literature.

A Tanager [wpaudio url=”/audio/8_10/Bearhart1.mp3″ text=”listen to this poem” dl=”0″] His flock of hand nestles into my cherry blossom, I quake, tremble, bleed into white sheets an ace of hearts,      a sunrise,           a bottle cap crown of fire brick paint on primer in the room where I met           Neruda.

The Making of Brothers 2010, ink on paper, 37″ x 42″ Daughters of the Dust, also called The Undertaker’s Pale Children 2010, ink on paper, 26″ x 21″ Betrothal of the Virgins 2009, ink on paper, 25″ x 20″    Wildbirds Among Branches 2008, ink on paper, 15″ x 20″  Fencing on the Gallows Tree

Preface. [wpaudio url=”/audio/8_10/Brandon3.mp3″ text=”listen to this poem” dl=”0″] In the beginning the past was notwithstanding. There was a thicket and I stood inside of it, piercing a thimble.           you knew she was                      down there, didn’t you I stayed my hide.

1. Mary: The LandLady, 1966 The corner room was rented out to me as long as I called her mother. In the corner room, honey peaked through the curtains, which infuriated the mold living under my favorite velvet wingback chairs—products of a successful dumpster dive.

[wpaudio url=”/audio/8_10/Connelly.

Miscegenation [wpaudio url=”/audio/8_10/Dias1.mp3″ text=”listen to this poem” dl=”0″] i. blushing brides bearing witness virginal, white, innocent, etc.

Elizabeth Taylor, Horse Whisperer [wpaudio url=”/audio/8_10/Dosta1.mp3″ text=”listen to this poem” dl=”0″] Husbandry: if you grow it, they live by it. Wives, beware your husbands. There’s a ghost in the snow. There’s a ghost and a hand that fills the hour with greatness. Soon, all will be revealed: here is a woman empty of her man.

“So,” I told Erin, “there are three things you’ve got going against you: you’re 24; too young, you’re white and you’re straight.” She wasn’t just hetero but recently out of a difficult eight-year relationship with a guy.

[wpaudio url=”/audio/8_10/Flett.mp3″ text=”listen to this story” dl=”0″] I know a girl who lives in the ocean and she says we have everything down here except for popcorn.

Finally, George Michael on the radio. [wpaudio url=”/audio/8_10/Gaiai1.mp3″ text=”listen to this poem” dl=”0″] We’ve pulled in between a pick-up and a good will box. I don’t belong to you and you don’t belong to me, freedom: a quart of mildly crushed strawberries and some biscuits in a plastic bag.

On the Slight Cruelty of Mothers [wpaudio url=”/audio/8_10/Garcia1.mp3″ text=”listen to this poem” dl=”0″] Just look at these hands, holding my small palms in hers. They have never had to work.

SUNDAY MORNING I sneak out, skip Mass to watch him slaughter the turkey we will eat for brunch with his  family and others from the Mormon Church. Early morning behind my mother’s back, I walk in twilight to their farmhouse.

Due to its unique formatting, we present Myles Lennon’s “Gchat Stasis” as a pdf file. Please click here and enjoy.

Homosexual Interracial Dating in the South in Two Voices (Found Poem from Practical Taxidermy by Montagu Brown) [wpaudio url=”/audio/8_10/Mohabir1.mp3″ text=”listen to this poem” dl=”0″] Do not mix your orders of birds: ignoring their enemies from different parts of the world. I have seen one or two in the “Black Country”.

Due to its unique formatting, we present Ife-Chudeni A. Oputa’s “After the Hour” as a pdf file. Please click here and enjoy.

i. before We met between tongue, thigh, and cerebellum. ii. during We are not unlike Ruth and Naomi. It is better this way. ii. finifugal Teeth and tongue fall out. This is the circumstance of kin. iii.

Human Error Air France Flight 447 disappeared from the radio waves on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris before crashing into the Atlantic Ocean in the early hours of June 1st, 2009.