LEO FLOOD

reCAPTCHA for Queer Joy

Please select the image of you in the mirror as a child, slicing
your hair above the chin, scissors a rebellion

you couldn't name. Please select sour blunts
we smoke while you tattoo my ass and we talk

about the brother who won't refer to you the way
you'd like him to, me pledging to be your new brother instead

select your hand sliding in relief over your flat chest held
together by nylon, tape, and its faithful illusion, select

you being flogged in a thong while your friends yelp
sweetly in the living room, select boy dykes fluttering

to house music in the local country bar, the sting in your eyes
before you wash the makeup you hoped wouldn't make

you feel too girl off in the sink, select our arms crossing
in winter when we wear coats made of air and ties

we taught ourselves to knot, select the un-maintenance
of friendship with other faggots, our laughs

when we say the word real loud in public, select
the queens on skates, us shy and waving dollar bills

from the side of the rink. Please select the velvet
futon you let me sleep on when I started using a name

my mother wouldn't say, that we chose love
because it is love, and not because it is absent somewhere else.

Leo Flood (they/he) is a poet and writer from the suburbs of Chicago. They recently received their dual-BA in Creative Writing and English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Their writing deals with the complexities of the "un-binary" body and everyday locales of queer joy. Besides writing, they enjoy cooking, playing music with friends, cutting/dyeing hair, and playing basketball with their fellow queers. Their work is published in or forthcoming from Applause and Dreginald.