"Queer Ecology" by Natalie Wee

Queer Ecology

While admiring the bounty of tomatoes in Q and M’s garden, 
we’re visited by crows. There are two, which makes it a murder. 
Q says that’s sick, sick itself a word inverted like a dog 
belly-up in the grass. A pack of hounds, a mob of kangaroos, 
a tower of giraffes. Here we’re a constellation of queers, 
sticky-fingered at the weekly potluck. Overhead, an astonishment 
of sunlight. The oven sweetens with lemon tarts. 
Y kneads my shoulder’s obstinate knot, knot also being 
a measure of nautical speed. When we touch, we’re a wrist 
of water bisecting. The table sings us a kindness of rice, quivers 
of spiced zucchinis, a pickle of carrots, a blush of fresh berries. 
J brought flowers again, bosoms of dogwood and hyacinth 
for us all. What a wonder, what a word, almost wander, 
as in through a luminous forest of dreams, almost window, 
a sly peephole into forever, where we fatten astride our loves 
like happy ears of corn. Dinner’s ready, M calls. 
Off we go, a tenderness of beloveds, 
our skirts of sorrow unfolding like flight, to feast 
on a conspiracy of all our hopes.



Previously appeared in Adi Magazine

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Photo Credit: May Truong

Natalie Wee is a queer cultural worker, writer, and artist who believes in a future of collective liberation. Natalie is the author of two poetry collections, Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines (tehzi/San Press, 2021) and Beast at Every Threshold (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2022), with the latter being a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. Born in Singapore to Malaysian parents, Natalie currently operates out of Tkarón:to, Dish with One Spoon territory.

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