Poem 1 Hour 1 Float
I float on my back and stare at the sky,
my thoughts are slow as a river,
my heart is calm.
I am one with the water.
Not worrying at all.
You Will Always Be
I will always
Remember you
As a warn summer day
Suffused with
Laughter and
Bathed in sunshine
You will always be
That way
To me
Even if the
Rains have come
And the storm
Have wrecked havoc
not the right kind
content warning: usage of the f-slur (f*g) as a device; discussion of being lgbtq+ and discrimination; sexual harrassment and threats
i am not the right kind of queer.
my existence is a debate and discourse,
and folks like to say
i’m not real –
– ly queer –
i’m lying
i don’t face discrimination.
(my first rape threat came
when i was twelve,
as a joke,
poorly made.
they stopped being jokes
at nineteen
when i first said “i’m ace”)
i read words that said,
“pete buttigieg is just a fag”.
beige. milquetoast.
white picket fence and
respectable.
there is no stopping
the people who hate queerness.
i am not the right kind of queer.
i am two steps left.
demand i fit in boxes, say
i’m bad for overflowing.
i can’t tell you my gender
(“it feels like” different when i touch it),
but i can tell you i never fit in,
can tell you ‘girl’ settled oddly
and ‘woman’ fit like too-small clothes and a scratchy blanket,
and when i was sixteen i fell in love with a girl
and cried when she wasn’t my first kiss
(i didn’t know).
kick me out if you want,
i’m used to it.
i have to build rocks and cages,
have to hunker down with the ones like me,
have to be willing to take a bullet
whenever i try to insist
“i’m here”.
i’m in-between and outside,
not the right kind of queer,
but no such thing as being the right kind,
anyway.
just being people,
writing labels,
finding ourselves.
and trust me when i say,
you’re not the right kind either.
not to them.
Intro
Hello! I’m Dexta Jean writing from the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. I believe I have participated since 2014. I will be exploring the topic of substitute teaching in America and using variations of haiku. The state of contemporary public schooling has been eye-opening to me, who never attended public school until I was a junior in college. I did, however, raise four sons in the public schools. I anticipate some of the poems will be about school shootings. I was subbing on the day of the Uvalde shooting. Even though I was 700 miles away and one state over – also a state very attached to gun-ownership – I hurt for the reality of fear we have created. I lament lost childhood.
Introduction
Hi, I am Tonet. I have been always asked why I write poems and my answer is always, “I write poetry when I am bored.”
#focused
Typing not texting. 😶
Prompts for the First Hour
For the second year in a row we are offering word and image prompts. The first prompt every hour will be text based (with occasional variations), and the second, if you scroll down, will be image based. You can choose either prompt or not use prompts at all (or only sporadically). All images are either taken from unsplash, or contributed by a poetry marathoner with credit.
Text Prompt
Write a poem about being in water. It can be about swimming, the shower, a bath, the rain, etc.
Image Prompt
Photo by Valentin Salja on Unsplash
Late hello!
Hi all! My name is Toni and this is my 6th or 7th year doing the marathon. I’m nervous that nothing will come to me today but still excited to rock it out! Best of luck to you all!
My first post
Here we go…
I’m Jill. I live in the Central Valley of California. I have a daughter. I play the accordion.
Testing
Testing testing