A Queerification by Regie Cabico

A Queerification

        —for Creativity and Crisis at the National Mall

queer me    

shift me    

transgress me  

tell my students i’m gay   

tell chick fil a i’m queer 

tell the new york times i’m straight   

tell the mail man i’m a lesbian  

tell american airlines 

i don’t know what my gender is  

like me

liking you

like summer blockbuster armrest dates

armrest cinematic love

elbow to forearm in the dark   

humor me queerly   

fill me with laughter  

make me high with queer gas     

decompress me from centuries of spanish inquisition

& self-righteous judgment

like the blood my blood  

that has mixed w/  the colonizer

& the colonized   

in the extinct & instinct to love 

bust memories of water & heat

& hot & breath

beating skin on skin fluttering   

bruise me into vapors   

bleed me into air   

fly me over sub-saharan africa & asia & antarctica 

explode me from the closet of my fears  

graffiti me out of doubt    

bend me like bamboo  

propose to me  

divorce me  

divide me into your spirit 2 spirit half spirit

& shadow me  w/ fluttering tongues

& caresses  beyond head 

heart chakras  

fist smashing djembes  

between my hesitations   

haiku me into 17 bursts of blossoms & cold saki    

de-ethnicize me   

de-clothe me    

de-gender me in brassieres

& prosthetic genitalias  

burn me on a brazier   

wearing a brassiere   

in bitch braggadocio soprano bass   

magnificat me in vespers

of hallelujah & amen   

libate me in halos

heal me in halls of femmy troubadors   

announcing my hiv status

or your status  

i am not afraid to love you    

implant dialects as if they were lilacs  

in my ear  

medicate me with a lick & a like

i am not afraid to love you  

so demand me      

reclaim me    

queerify me