We Protest
10,000 strong in the field with hockey stick signs
I’m in the metro waiting for my friend
Whom I saw last night and we had such a good time
But when we got home we heard about the mosque
In Quebec City where some batshit white guy
Ruined a billion nights
I cuddle my phone and watch the docile crowds
The cops are weirdly jovial like cowboys in the sun
A white guy starts chanting that we’re all welcome
I’m too petty to protest effectively
Does the light let my brown show today
You ask why I don’t trust the light
The hard cold blows through the station
My friend drops her phone in the field
“Love is Colder Than Death”
– RW Fassbinder, 1969
Without recourse to shame
Love in its usual state of partial disintegration
Or dreamed-of union, which is the same thing –
Is colder than death because –
And I’ve seen more funerals than weddings but –
Death is union with the greater whole some of
Your parted lips even before they disconnect
The dots of you and your purple shoes
I saw him say oh hey it’s you again hello
And the union is real not just hoped for
You trade in your trepidating spheres
In half-light hoping they don’t see your concealer –
My lover’s tattoo says “every tattoo is temporary”
