"Sapphic Lecture" by Sophia Dahlin
Sapphic Lecture
if you fear you are not gay enough go out and do something about it like suck a dyke’s dick or get fisted dump your boyfriend fear can be destructive and it will age you it will age you like the sun but you can enjoy your fear if you are careless with it you can enjoy the sun and let it graze upon your baby skin if you fear not being queer enough try to think of yourself as lyrical dirt anticapitalist animals might furrow sunlight might lavish sex upon notice yourself mobile [a bouncing part of the natural world] if you fear not being read as queer cut your hair weird quit a job practice your art or I don’t know join a cell locate a clit I am trying to show you how good this can be how much joy like how much liquid in these clouds men can be wonderful but too many will ruin your life they will ruin the garden of your love because they will stand around you like a fence and crowd out the queer birds, the queer beasts and the queer creatures of the forest's fucking
Sophia Dahlin is a poet from California. Her most recent collection, Glove Money (Nightboat) is a finalist for the Lambda Literary award in Lesbian Poetry and the Poetry Society’s William Carlos Williams award. She is also the author of Natch (City Lights) and many chapbooks. She leads generative poetry workshops, teaches youth creative writing, and, with seven other poets, curates a weekly reading series at Tamarack, Oakland.