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Bark of Bark of Millions Millions
ATUM I make myself Hidden in water I make myself Straying in darkness I make myself Hidden in water I make myself By uttering a name Atum Temu Tem Ra A bennu bird Flying from the nun A bennu bird A favor from the sun By uttering a name Atum Temu Tem Ra A bennu bird Nesting in the spices A bennu bird Fashioning a bough A bennu bird Burning then reborn By uttering a name Atum Temu Tem Ra Crossing heaven on a vessel Called the Bark of Millions
BARK OF MILLIONS The Bark of Millions Brings the sun Victorious Again And the bark is a boat Made from a tree And a bark is a shout And a begging to be seen And the boat has a captain And the captain’s name is Atum Atum is Ra and Ra is Atum And Ra is the first god And the first god birthed the world And the world birthed the human So the human comes from Atum In the Bark of Millions And Atum is queer Mixing genders and desire So the god who birthed the world Who birthed the one who gave us fire So were made between the genders In the Bark of Millions
FRANKIE KNUCKLES Queer Baby. Would you be here if it weren’t the hope? Would you be here if it weren’t the plan? Would you be here if it weren’t the hope? Would you be here if it weren’t? Sink deeply.
BELLA DUBALLE Sex and children They don’t wanna admit That the children got their barbies All rubbing their clits Plastic panties Ain’t stopping the rub Ain’t nobody learned it From the queen at the club
R N S T E IN O E B T A K
Shwe Shwe Shwe Shwe The Burmese beauty parlor elder Shwe Shwe A reliquary stupa Shwe Shwe The Burmese beauty parlor mother Shwe Shwe A temple of the moan You pray to eight strands of hair Locked in a temple As a tribute to the gods You pray to eight strands of hair And the monks make slaughter I pray to all strands of queer Freed in a shack And against all odds I pray to all strands of queer Choose a color Blue, black, violet, Mother dyes away The violence.
CLAUDE CAHUN Button ‘em, suction ‘em on Dragging in the pants of the enemy Trace it, paint it all on Eyeliner stash of the bourgeoisie Print ‘em, hand ‘em out Flier in the pants of the enemy Lift it, win it girl Posing in the frame of the bourgeoisie And the muscle She broke the bustle And the pay Is paper mâché And the coon hounds Are on the hunt For Claude Cahun
JAMES BALDWIN
GIOVANNI DI GIOVANNI They say It is a horrid death Like drinking molten earth Like turning inside out And it’s not pretty They say The grass won’t grow again Where I’ll be laid to rest The poison will infect Just like the pity Maybe the fucking that was had Could never be outweighed Lives longer than a day And keeps on being Give it a century Maybe less Perhaps a year The threat and pain of it May disappear
OOh O h O O O h Ya Ya Ya Ya O O h Radical Fai y r y yyyy y y yy HARRY HAY hey how do you fetishize the masculine and nelly? how, when the bears are thin and the twinks shows off their belly? how will you all agree when the beat is so contrary? ooh ooh ooh ooh radical fairy. how do you end the sides when the word is non-binary?
MOTHER FLAWLESS Hey Mother Flawless I might have got it done That song that I’ve been Tink’ring on Since before you died Do you remember the night We dressed like Minnelli And you speed talked my mom With your AZT belly Cause suffering ain’t so bad When it’s set to music
Investigate all of the penal codes As it pertains to the lesbian expression Propose the change and then take a breath To bat away the worst of the aggression DEL MARTIN & PHYLLIS LYON Change to sensible shoes in case you’re followed Cut the poster-board and paint the sign Purge the lies that you have swallowed Dream easy in the night Oh oh oh oh Then wake up for the fight
MARY SHELLEY Prospects of Percy Prospects of Dod Prospects of holding A calcified heart Or prospects of turning Tousey-mousey For you Prospects of Percy Prospects of pens Prospects of reading We were all merely friends Instead I made a monster No I wrote the book The man made the monster So the man is the crook Did I make a monster No I wrote the prose The world is the monster In the emperor’s clothes
WILMER LITTLE AXE BROADNAX What you feeling When you bringing that That high tone soul Fitting in with the whole How is it How is it How is it both Like dying and birth To sing like you In your mystery
WILLIAM DORSEY SWANN
JUSTIN CHIN One To Watch One To Pray Two To Bear My Soul Away One To Watch One To Pray Two To Bear My Soul Away Angels In The Bed Angels In The Pen Angel Sweat Angel Sin Take Me To The Angel Justin Chin One To Kiss One To Hold Two To Keep Away The Cold Oh You Freaky Geek Rest In Peace While Your Poems Burn Burn Burn Take Me To The Angel Justin Chin
Shouldn’t there be a word for that feeling Of sinking into a lover After you’ve left them for awhile Shouldn’t there be A word for that feeling Of you being gone and everywhere Oh Lorde I’m talking Audre Or maybe both Who knows Since one Made the other Maybe both Are each other ‘Cause Audre said it’s all how you’ve dreamt it In the songs in the banners In the long long changes In politics of manners You’re everywhere Oh Lorde You’re everywhere AUDRE LORDE
REINALDO ARENAS A School In The Tide Una Escuela En La Marea And When The Flash Flood Comes How He’ll Swim Cómo Nadará Cómo Una Escuela En La Marea Cómo Nadará Cómo Todas Las Escuelas En La Marea
guts goo broken bits stick slip and take the piss testin’ ‘testines one two three tangle up space ‘tween the you and me BHAGAVATI-DEVI
NORMAN & SHIMIZU Oh, wo, oh, keep your powder dry Keep your powder dry You load your bullet baby You whet the stone honey I’ll wet the wick You pack your gun girl I’ll pack my dick You shoot your ship baby I’ll shoot my lip Stick And sync it Just don’t forget the trick
SAPPHO AND THE AMAZONIANS
MADELEINE PELLETIER Save formalities For gods and rules And all that’s cruel. Instead, jolt me Out of what we’re made to be. If I’m scared of me It’s only from the way I see. Decree the stations But they’re there to Set you free. Oh, There’s so much to be, There’s so much to be. Get to it I’ll be her abortion doctor, Cuz he knocked her up And shocked her, While he mocked her Chains are curtesies and lotions, Glistenings and rivals. Chains are what we call survival. Chains are sad eyes and demureness. Chains are pouts and all the petting, Still I’m betting all my life on you. Even though the yous give me the blues.
BDB WOMEN Her Tux Is Styling Her Grill Is Piling Up BDB Women BDB Women What Makes The Girls All Come BDB Women To Hear Them Sing And Strum The Lady Day Bed’s Where Tullalah Bankhead Sounds like there’s room for you. BDB Stands For Bull! Dyke! Blues!
this gentleman i knew she pillaged a heart or two the guardian angel of the village this gentlemen i knew worked as a bouncer she’d take ya by the arm escort ya home she’d open doors for all the whores for when the johns don’t treat ‘em like they are someone she didn’t play with pimps she didn’t pinch or skimp but doled out tips while looking dapper the only thing she stole was a certain heart of gold with her homemade doubled down strapper
JACK BEE GARLAND The shoes are polished with spit and the elbow. Though no longer living come and find me In the window you pass On your way to sleep L O V E R WA N T E D Mr. Jack Bee Garland, shorter Than a high-backed chair Or taller than a captain
TU’ER SHEN In the peep hole In the dream In the burrow The rabbit queer Will find your lover Bring the sugar Bring the pork Bring the fingers Smear the lips Of the rabbit queer And find your lover Make him kind Make him strong enough To lift the world in concert Tu’er Shen Give him doubt And make him brave enough to love again, again, again Tu’er Shen The rabbit queer Will find you
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE Who who Who will sing Who who For the nightingale Will it be her Down in the slum How does she know Just what to hum And did she mention Her voice is cracking Well she stayed awake all through the night With the farmer girl and her blush Well she’s gonna sweat all over you Her rivers gonna rush and rush She’s gonna burn up in the bed She’s gonna get all flush
LADIES OF LLANGOLLEN The Ladies of Llangollen In a cottage of stone Aren’t troubled by being In the world on their own. A witch and a witch C ouple d fore ver
GRETA GARBO I wanna be alone. With you. The misery of others Is lovers Aren’t rare. The misery of others Is lovers Will share all they do. All they do. I wanna be alone. With you. The error of the story Is no one Is there. The secret and the glory Is we both Have dared To be. To be.
LORRAINE HANSBERRY & NINA SIMONE You ever made love In middle of a blue note? I’m playing sounds, Lead a woman to her kind I’m playing sounds, Saying come on and Find me, come on and-- There’s no revolution Without you leading the way
The Flashlight Shines Off The Windshield And The Wet On The Tarmac And Inside On Your Sweat The Light’s A Stage, A Reveal And A Chain Your Dicks Are Out And Your Heartbeat’s Inhumane This Is The First Time Not The Sex But The Arrest BAYARD RUSTIN This Is The Third Time Not The March But The Arrest What’s The Difference Both Are Grassroot And Protest
FRANCES THOMPSON The devil’s in the white man The way he licks his lips The devil’s in the white man The wealthy and the hicks The devil’s in the white man And In Memphis ‘66 You want that devil Climb inside You want that devil He hitched a ride You want that devil Then take a trip You want that devil Time travel Unravel ‘66
YUKIO MISHIMA Mishima Mishima Mishima You still give me a boner Mishima Mishima Mishima But it’s limp when it’s all over It’s hard to imagine a man More a stain of perfume on a ball gown It’s hard to imagine a man With a way with words and skin Who would rather conquer all the world Than live within Silly little beauty
I got a death threat, an extortion A hand in my pocket From a walking abortion Guess his brain got broke And he’s hearing distortion Guess his heart all pumped With not getting his portion Hurting certain, Someone done him wrong Curtain curtain Come down in the middle of his song The bug-eye tugging on his caged little dong I guess the drink and the tina got him goin’ goin’ gone he gonna coddle the hyena all night long He gonna coddle the hyena Of the gestapo Stapo stapo VIOLETTE MORRIS
There were satyrs at your birth And the spit of priests refused But now the mother’s in a tower Locked away from further use And a kingdom at your beck and call Though your first word’s not been said Will the wisest fool in Christendom Ever love again After the loss of Lennox After the loss of him Will the wisest fool in Christendom Ever love again And the king he wept and wept And the kingdom blushed and blushed While he was chastised by his chaplain For the tears will always birth us Will the love and loss of men And the pain of the mothers Mean you’ll never love a woman And you’ll always mourn the brothers KING JAMES
FELIX YUSUPOV why the queer always nuts why the queer always killing or spilling their guts andy valerie why the queer always mental why the queer al- ways killed and killing their gentle bonny read why the queer gotta bleed why the queer gotta pirate to be their own lead
Leonardo Da Vinci Is all this work For the sake of the working? Head down until There’s no natural light. Why’s that the best feeling you’ve had. If you don’t fly Will the idea be fetching, When there’s nothing but sketching, ‘Til after you’ve gone? If you don’t fly? Do the lovers accept you? Do they even respect you? Never lying the night, Making most of your time. Why is that the best feeling you’ve had? Do inventions sustain you? Was your god and his work-week The model or antique Way to keep you apart? Is it nothing but sketching ‘Til after you’ve gone? If you don’t fly?
Herman Melville & Nathaniel Hawthorne Is there a reason Moby Dick’s so long and the middle, with such excessive fishing like a man who’s lost at sea when the days are all a’blending Is there a reason Oh There’s a reason Is there a reason when a love won’t be returned Though he peppers you with such unspoken longing Is there a reason Oh There’s a reason Nathaniel Unrequited You fucker Nathaniel So I’m lost at sea In the cold In the cold Masterpiece
MARSHA P. JOHNSON It takes the street clown to get fed up It takes the queen to sermonize It takes the woman whose down on her luck to swat the bullies like their flies It takes the ones who have been trampled Not to do what they’ve been told But pull the teeth from those who step on them and pave the streets with filling gold.
R E H G A L L A G D L A N O D Donald The avatar of mirth And the pan of all chi Donald Patron saint of pleasure And the pixie of pee Donald, The sun, it got Captured in The gleam of His eye And the moon It shakes Above his little Stick and bone Thigh Oh Donald Come to me Donald The leprichaun of Jersey And the gnome of the knowing Donald Fairy of the fairies And the hoe of the hoeing Donald, Donald, Donald, Donald Come to me Donald!
is ha! ha! ha! ha! larry kramer is ooh eee ooh eee! larry kramer is face crack knee slap. not from the wack of the funny bone, not from the hill and not from the stone, not from the roast or from a homophone, not from the picture, not from the rally, not from the tally of the rest in peace but the l.o.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.e. not from the weather or the aid for the aids, not from the market and not from the trade, not from the docks and not from the piers, but yes from the queers in the herstory, yes from the queers in the balcony and the l.o.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.v.e.
CHAVELA VARGAS
LE FEMMINUCCE Le Ragazze Tutti Arrivano Su San Domino. Indossano Cappelli Estivi Bianchi E Estivi Bianchi. Le Ragazze Tutti Indossano Su San Domino. Indossano Vestiti Fatto Di Erbe E Cappelli Fatto Di Fagiani. Le Femminucce Stanno Ballando Su San Domino E Ballano Senza Luce La Sera Senza Luce La Sera Le Ragazze Tutti Indossano Su San Domino Indossano Amicizia E Amanti E La Libertà.
MARGARET CHO In the back corner stall plastered and ‘gainst the wall at the Cowgirl Cafe. From the two long parades I dreamed of Margaret Cho. And I thought of your joke how it’s built from the broke little bits, from a pain ringing sunlight from rain. Oh Margaret Cho. And your joke went like this: I’m not straight, I’m not gay I’m just slutty, and hey, where is my parade? Oh woe and sorrow A parade full of sluts But a queer’s not a slut Still a slut is a queer So I think that each year You’re good to go And do any of us Feel the show is for us? Even when we’re upfront Even in the witch-hunt And it’s silly I guess, to be sad in the mess of this queer happiness, plastered and ‘gainst the wall at the Cowgirl Cafe.
Nainknum Khnumhotep M-R Jr Ant (Overseers Of The Fingers) Hrj Ssta (Guardians Of Secrets) Mrr Nb.f (Beloveds Of His Lord In All Enduring Places In All Enduring Places) Hm-Ntr Ra M Szp Jb Ra Sun Priest In The Heart Receives You NAINKNUM KHNUMHOTEP Overseers Of The Fingers Holding Hands Through Centuries Overseers Of The Pageantry All Pageantry Bury We Together Growing Growing Into You M-R Jr Ant (Overseers Of The Fingers) Hrj Ssta (Guardians Of Secrets) Mrr Nb.f (Beloveds Of His Lord)
THE GREEKS Mounting upwards to beauty From one to two to all fair forms We’re mounting upwards to beauty From all fair forms to all fair actions We’re mounting upwards to beauty Mounting upwards to beauty Philosophy is Greek for love of wisdom And love of wisdom is love for all of you From all fair actions To all fair notions We’re mounting upwards to beauty Mounting upwards to beauty
PROSYMNUS He died and crossed that River Styx He was born again from the fig and stick Oh Prosymnus His breath ran out with all the blood he was born Again from a phallus of mud Oh Prosymnus What a wish You could have all the world and you asked for a kiss
PATTERSON’S LOVERS He had a lover In the Factory scene. Put a wig on a Warhol And call it some art. Should he or will he ring the doorbell to sex? Or sit on that stoop with a trembling heart? He had a lover with razor blade cheekbones, A jaw that inspired Merce Cunningham’s lines. What happens to beauty when shared with so many? On the magazine covers and in the pools in the Pines? He had a lover, the original Rocky. Does doing the Time Warp ever get old? Does walking in nothing but flipflops and speedos From uptown to downtown ever get cold? He had a lover, was a mover of bodies: Diagrams, patterns, and leotard thighs. He stayed with him for the sweat and the sweetness. Nothing good last in epidemics and lies.
ECCENTRICITY E! (Egg) C! (Cat) C! (Cat eyes) E! (Egg Yolk) N! (Naughty brain) T! (Twirling mustache) R! (Ribald) I! (Inverted sense of humor) ( C I T Y ! C I T Y ! C I T Y ! C I T Y ! C I T Y ! C I T Y ! C I T Y ! C I T Y ! )
NZINGHA MBANDE I’m lying in the night, Restless from the ache. Thinking of your lips Taking all my space Would you let a continent And seas deter you? Would you let the centuries Between us blur you? Would you? Forty years in sovereignty Beating slaver Portuguese. You’re the only one, Mbande, I’d let ever conquer me. Were you happy being The top of an apexes? Did it please you to be The strongest woman Of all time?
KINNARA Kinnara If I Were A Kinnara Traveling The Astral Planes I’d Hunt For All The Cracks By Following The Rains We’d Pour Down Ancient Buildings We’d Trickle Through The Cells We’d Gather At The Bottom Of The Levels Of The Hells Then Feed And Fester Creatures The Ones That Make You Sweat We’d Grow Them Into Layers From The Flames And Grit And Wet It Always Is Surprising When I’m Called Out As Unique We All Come From The Drippings And We Can’t Contain The Leak If I Were A Kinnara With A Posse Of The Flown We’d Kiki In The Fuchsia Silks From Worms That We Have Grown We’d Dance And Play Forever Just As I Do Right Now We’d Gather All The Spectators But Sing For Sacred Cows And In The Early Mornings When The Rest Has Wrapped Us Tight I’d Count All Of My Siblings And Thank Them For The Night
ANTINOUS Hey Cherub You Gonna Be An Angel Hey Lover You Gonna Be A Romance Novel Hey Apostle You Gonna Grow Around The World And Make ‘Em Grovel On Their Knees Anyone Can Have A Cult Count ‘Em One Too Many Have Coerced It Love It, Pray It, The Result Is Emperors Say Who You Worship And I Say You Hey Player You Gonna Have A Game Hey Heart Slayer I’m Gonna Name It In Your Name Hey Pretty You Gonna Get A City Cause You Aimed That Gaze On Me
OSCAR WILDE Oh the prison is damp and unbending And the time is long and unkind centuries to go And barely keeping mind His lungs are full of puddles His bones are swollen and sore Round the yard he roams And barely keeping score When carnations are held From the warmth of companions, They will wilt like the green When the frost comes a calling. They will fall to the ground Without thinking or knowing. They will die all alone And be gone while they’re going. Oh the Wilde for a lover is breathless His light is from years that have past All his hope is for A beauty that never lasts
YOU & ME