For Tamari Who Listens to Beyonce’s Renaissance Like I Do

The vibe. Is a door. Straight. To the bent heart. Of the 1990s? Still inside. As I turned. Inside out. Reversed. What father put. Into me, and into me. Returned. Summering. Of queer libraries. Of vibrations. From the stacks. And stacks of knowledge. A body returned. To me, as I. Listened. And listened. And listened. Bent and turned. Gripped. By what a body knows. In the summer. As a body becomes. Again. What it once was. The mind always knew. Truth. All along. A body doesn’t always belong. A body needs to break. Away from bodies. That body it. Here. Or the future. Racing past. Ahead. Like a song. In summer.  The other. Side. ?. Myself. Waiting. Hello. Here. I am. Arriving. Arriving. Gone.

Cassandra Whitaker (they/them) is a trans writer from Virginia whose work has been published, or is forthcoming, in Michigan Quarterly Review, The Rumpus, The Mississippi Review, Foglifter, Whale Road Review, Conjunctions, Evergreen Review, and other places.

Cassandra Whitaker