1 poem
by Dana Tyrrell
Dana Tyrrell is an artist, curator, and writer based in Buffalo, NY. His visual art has been exhibited throughout the northeastern United States. His writing has been published with Buffalo Rising, Cornelia, and Variety Pack, among others. He is the author of sufjan stevens send tweet (2022).
Sovereign
You’ve come so far to be nobody. Take me back to dancefloor drag queens/ mirrored electric violet eyes digesting us/ an ache to be seen by everyone/ & remain anonymous. Scruffy stranger drinking me/ sweat coiling down the ditch of my spine/ head lolling/ mouthing the words/ hands reaching/ shimmering toward tomorrow/ an incantation/ a mirage/ gone before it hits my bloodstream.
The smell of rain carried on cold air/ punching deep into eight million pairs of lungs/ cutting crisp January sight/ & piles of pine trees dropped on the sidewalk/ waiting for garbage day to rapture the dog shit scraped from our soles. Lines he mapped ambled from my eyes/ I swore I couldn’t let go of dead history/ sloughed onto casual corners. It can only be the end of the world if we move forward.
I fell in love with you through the blue haze of distance/ googling how long I could dance in front of your firing squad/ in the East Village taking out the trash/ in the West Village marching toward the sea. Meet me in Central Park and chisel the nose from my face/ so that textbooks will never know I once fastened my power to beauty.