Poetry by Fiona McCulloch
Pride
Leadsom spews opportunistic bile
Parents choose whether to expose offspring
Chechnya purges
Brunei stones
Alabama blocks marriage
Missouri retirement home rejects couple
Missouri turns away dance couple
Palm Springs nightclub shooting
Orlando Pulse
~~~~~~/\/\/\~~~~~/\/\~~~
Aunt said it wisnae cos they’re gay
Cousin said move anywhere
Folk are fine wi aw that nooadays
Didnae understaun ma relocation anxiety
Best friend said the affront o’ her
Putting her erm roon her girlfriend an’
Checking to see who wis watchin’
Me and ma husband wir oan a night oot
You’re the best kind o’ lesbian cos
You don’t make a big deal aboot it
A patient’s partner came in to visit, she said,
Aw cuddly and attentive, mair
Than any straight couple wid be
The cheek o’ them!
Tongue immobilised
She attended the wedding
Left early – boyfriend feud
Estranged husband died
She’d several affairs
Lent three grand when their shit hit
Redundant, never repaid or asked I’m ok
Boasted ye’ve nae idea how big my salary is
Silent too long
I ghosted her
Brother boycotted our wedding
Won’t expose his son
To that kind of thing
Teenager lost, afraid, invalid
No ontological comparatives
Erasure Section 28
Precious progress remains fragile
Our humanity deceivers deride
Lack empathy yet stake
Morality’s high ground
We must steer forwards
Never deny ourselves
They want us afraid, cowed
Gauging safety of holding hands
Feign threatened way of life
Refuse other citizens equality
Denying us is cultural genocide
Our history choked in educators’ throats
Keeps each generation concealed
Their narrative mirrors distort
Our image estranged from ourselves
Shatter their glass, it is a simulacra
And you a verifiable truth
Requiem
Park picnic party
Space invaded
Post-lockdown heatwave joy
Laughter casual conversation
Bathing in each other’s company
Sun tickling your neck
Uncanny after isolating months
Something catches your peripheral Vision too late
Shock leaves you rooted like blades Of grass or
Tree foliage under which you shade
Knife cutting angrily
Through space and time
Chopping the air
Severs your skin
Penetrates your internal
Organs slicing slicing
Sliding through butter
But it’s your fragile frame
He’s splaying
Horror oozes through
Onlookers dumbstruck
Watching some surreal act
Too too real
Your lives cut short
A cull a cult
Of rage against fellow humans
Three gay men slain
Incandescent constellations
Ripped asunder
Inspiring philosophers
Opening minds enlightening
Futures to think
Snuffed out
Cut short
Impoverished planet
Dark ages cloak
Evolutionary progress