i find myself queer in space
i have extracted myself from the sweet
terrors of this planet. the one that lies
about the soft landing of home. out here, the air is thick
as a horse. the sting is willing, and i’m selfish.
i offer my own absence. a black hole, no modern ability
to calculate what goes on in there, which is
i rage as much as i love. the way a lion craves the damp
of a gazelle. i am always gentle in the aftermath, a light
lick on the body of the one i choose. yet another hole, dark
as obsidian and even more precious. a calculation
in tongues. there is no possession, only an envoy
signaling the bone-chill of expanding. no flat note
of gravity, only an original instrument to fine tune
and it’s me, me, the glowing timbre of me.
About the Author
Ami Patel (she/her) is a queer, diasporic South Asian poet and Young Adult Fiction writer. Her work can be found in the Unchaste Anthology Volume Two, the Madwoman Etc Zine Issue Two, and They Rise Like A Wave: An Anthology of Asian American Women Poets.