1 25 6 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource All Anthology Poems Description An account of the resource This is a collection of all poems currently available to read in the Anthology. To browse poems by author identity tags, <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/tag-index" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">visit the tag index</a> or <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/search" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">try our advanced search</a>. Poem Contains text information about individual contributors to the anthology. Text Any textual data included in the document Stained glass windows were a beautiful shine; bright as a girl's innocent face. Shapes spiral around the cushioned red carpet ground. Dress shoes and heels molded deep in the rugs, like the warming love my family has mended in their hearts, pocketed for me; though, unknowingly loving their idea of Satan sewn into a daughter. I’ve been hallowed out by wooden spoons and flushed of liquid silk in my skeleton. I am filled full of fire, for He set me ablaze. Women were just so pretty. And I die kissing gentle lips that never burned like I was told they would. It felt of bright spring flowers that grew in fields of tall grass. It was soft, warm as freshly brewed tea. Spades were always pulled in our decks, though they never chopped the flowers we grew. Petals mourn the roads of my town. I act as a flower girl, tossing my love and pride for everyone to judge. Rainbows radiate in the sanctuary, inevitable and colorful for all congregations to see. —<a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/show/508" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Christina McElhaney (she/her)</a> Content Warnings Warnings about any potentially harmful or triggering content present in the text. religious trauma religion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Stained Glass Windows Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Christina McElhaney Author Tag: lesbian Content Notice: religion Content Notice: religious trauma Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource All Anthology Poems Description An account of the resource This is a collection of all poems currently available to read in the Anthology. To browse poems by author identity tags, <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/tag-index" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">visit the tag index</a> or <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/search" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">try our advanced search</a>. Poem Contains text information about individual contributors to the anthology. Text Any textual data included in the document Sometimes woman feels like a stain on my chest Dark and descriptive Some Dark Thing that seeps Through my sweater and into my skin Sticky and strange underneath Makes me squirm just a little to the left Of my instinct This thing that stings like a million mistakes I haven’t had a chance to make I hide the strangest spots with clothes Sunday best or something Pour anatomy too angular Into a dainty church dress Maybe I can fool a congregation long enough For God to reimagine me A little less damaged From the pew I feel Pastor's eyes like lasers Slicing through my artless disguise Exposing the unsubtle shape underneath He mumbles something about Eve Looks at me like Paradise Lost personified Woman spews out of me Thick and putrid Down my front Soon I trade church dresses for oversized flannels And high school boys (bless their egos) Raise overgrown Overconfident eyebrows at me Why do you dress like such a dyke now? An unfamiliar aggression slipped into each word in the question Like sedatives into a screwdriver I say “they’re just comfortable” Then swiftly realize my mistake No one wants a woman to be comfortable I squirm in my underwire bra It presses back into me, hard against my bone Squirm is a good word It's how I feel in this bra Underneath the weight of that word Dyke Three brothers golden retriever pile themselves onto me An amorphous mass of sibling affection Odd angles all around My stepmom pokes her head in Says “don’t you mess with my girl” Single syllable Tongue curled And cadence sweet I catch her words Drape them around me like a hug When you're a girl You're someone's family When you're a woman You're someone's problem If I could just wear woman like she wears woman I wouldn’t be such a problem. I wear woman more like a stiff uniform An idiopathic expectation I stuff myself into Though it’s obvious I’m five sizes too tall A soul-and-a-half too wild Often underneath it I feel that same sticky substance Staining me from the inside out Body balanced against the changing-room wall I seek a disguise that lies the least Hiking identifiers up past my knees Like thrifted pairs of genes Pronouns all tangled In rapidly-changing hairstyles As I bring them down around my shoulders I come across a gently-loved pair Of distressed denim overalls They slide up smooth over all my pained parts Leaving just enough space for a cuff Above quintessentially queer combat boots I am a product of my own artistry A scarred specimen still sacred Both muse and masterpiece beginning To sort out the likeness of a familiar femme Still uncertain about this skin Whether everything within Renders me survivor or sickness I sneak a little smile at my unconventional reflection And thank Goddess That I still have half a life left To wear woman however the hell I want. —<a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/show/431" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">S. Drew Bloyer</a> Content Warnings Warnings about any potentially harmful or triggering content present in the text. religion gender dysphoria swearing Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Wearing Woman Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource S. Drew Bloyer Author Tag: activist Author Tag: bisexual Author Tag: disabled Author Tag: low-income Author Tag: neurodivergent Author Tag: Nonbinary Femme Author Tag: queer Author Tag: white Content Notice: gender dysphoria Content Notice: religion Content Notice: swearing Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource All Anthology Poems Description An account of the resource This is a collection of all poems currently available to read in the Anthology. To browse poems by author identity tags, <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/tag-index" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">visit the tag index</a> or <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/search" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">try our advanced search</a>. Poem Contains text information about individual contributors to the anthology. Text Any textual data included in the document <div align="center"> I am watching you– kneeling before the bones of St. Peter. Head bowed, lips quickly quivering as you recite ancient words that mean little to you and even less to me. “Oh Glorious Saint Peter...” It is trancelike– analytical but emotional– as I can see that cute little furrow in your brow– the one you get when I leave ice cold coffee cups on our bedside table, leaving little rings. Or the same one that appears when we walk through the grocery store, hand in hand, and, for a moment, I break our sacred covenant for a box of Pop Tarts– “that isn't on the list” You are locked in. Focused and dedicated. *sigh* My eyes wander up and down the walls, scanning corner to corner, quietly noticing each adornment in this chapel. (It’s really pretty gay when you think about it) Gold plated sconces, bedazzled, bejeweled robes of luscious velvet and elegant lace table toppers. A dedicated crowd of adorers... moving their lips in tandem to songs they all somehow know the words to, but I don't. Reverently, handing their money over to the idol of their affection. Passing the plate down and down–a drag queen’s dream. *sigh* I close my eyes for a moment to call out to my own Saint– Sister Mary Clarence, why have you forsaken me... (This church needs a little more Whoopi.) I think about that scene–that one we can both sing whenever asked. “Hail mother of mercy and of love. Oh Maria”. Remembering how happy we were. are. were. *sigh* I don't understand how you could bring yourself here. How you could wiggle yourself into your freshly pressed Easter chinos to stand up, kneel, sit down, stand up, kneel, sit down in endless liturgical repetition. But then again, you’ve never had to worry about the whole of your back being exposed every time you kneel or the front of your shirt spatchcocking itself if and when you stand up too quickly. Your pants have never “crown of thorns”-ed themselves around your waist or your thighs or your legs. Do not forgive them father, because they know exactly what they do. You scoff at me for wearing my baggiest sweatpants to church. But It’s the only comfort I can find in a place like this. *sigh* I wonder what flows through your mind like the hymns and prayers that fill this spacious cavern... I track the vibrations of faith as they bounce off the monolith walls both the literal I can see and the metaphysical I can feel when we met, I was sure you didn't like me you were cold, reserved, impossible to see within and yes... I was looking but then you kissed me and I wasn't sure what to do with that and then you kissed me again the way you grabbed my waist felt unfamiliar you were present but not forceful, gently aggressive in the most exciting way your hand glided over my curves and folds without hesitation as you handled me like an antique book- fragile but worthy of turned pages and now we’ve met each others mothers and vacationed just about everywhere we’ve wanted we’ve regrouted the bathroom and mourned together over childhood pets and bickered over new duvet covers. gingham it is. *sigh* I wish you would look at me the way you look at these remains that I could hold your deepest attention for longer than a moment And I wonder, when the times comes, and all my flesh and fat falls away Will you love til I am bones? </div> —<a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/show/282">austin sargent (he/him)</a> Content Warnings Warnings about any potentially harmful or triggering content present in the text. religion sensuality Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Til I Am Bones Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource austin sargent Author Tag: gay Author Tag: queer Author Tag: white Content Notice: religion Content Notice: sensuality Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource All Anthology Poems Description An account of the resource This is a collection of all poems currently available to read in the Anthology. To browse poems by author identity tags, <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/tag-index" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">visit the tag index</a> or <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/search" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">try our advanced search</a>. Poem Contains text information about individual contributors to the anthology. Text Any textual data included in the document Black days of bright crocuses rear their heads, slipping eel-like from fog. I stare at the sacred geometry of my bedroom ceiling, an Episcopal cathedral wrought from concrete and plaster. I suppose it’s fitting that flesh schematic of God’s form dwells in a facsimile of Their house. I say let there be light and I keep flipping the switch the wrong way, hollow clicks in the dark spidering over my prostrate body. Sometimes I take a walk up to the hill and stare down into the waves, so distant and sheltered that the illusion of their individuality wavers, a great, gray, water-thing quivering below. Vastness almost sickens me, my stomach clenching and expanding with the insignificance of my voice and the insignificance of everyone else’s. Paper-wasps and juncos flit along the drop, all breeze and whistle and hooked digit. And then there’s the slope, always crumbling away and full of bald roots and brambles and busted beer cans and atrophy and dirt. Almost the mirror-image of the slope behind the Episcopal cathedral, with its tilted walls of cement and its lurching step towards the canal. I go there, too, to perch on ruins and watch the water. To watch everything that the light fashions for me decay and dissolve and become one with its likenesses. As night falls, the water recreates the sinking sun and turns black. —<a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/show/147">Adele</a> Content Warnings Warnings about any potentially harmful or triggering content present in the text. religion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Almost a Hymn for the Collapsed Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Adele Author Tag: bisexual Author Tag: Christian Author Tag: disabled Author Tag: queer Author Tag: transgender Author Tag: white Content Notice: religion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource All Anthology Poems Description An account of the resource This is a collection of all poems currently available to read in the Anthology. To browse poems by author identity tags, <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/tag-index" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">visit the tag index</a> or <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/search" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">try our advanced search</a>. Poem Contains text information about individual contributors to the anthology. Text Any textual data included in the document Gay child of fundamental Christians, Born broken, damaged, full of sin. To straighten me is the only mission, Of this church I’m raised in. My soul is shrouded in darkness, Or so church elders say. So, I search all day for lightness, To cast this evil away. “Have faith in Him,” I’m told. “For He’ll illuminate the way.” but His love for me runs cold, He doesn’t answer when I pray. Created in His likeness, My will has steered me wrong. I choose to be unrighteous, I must change to belong. Simply follow the straight and narrow. Live my life in black and white. Hide the rainbows in my marrow. Those colors shine too bright. Beg Jesus for forgiveness. Beg the father up above. For the real sin committed, Is loving whom I love. —<a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/show/136">Lorinda Boyer She/Her</a> Content Warnings Warnings about any potentially harmful or triggering content present in the text. lack of acceptance religious trauma religion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Forgive the Rainbows Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Lorinda Boyer Author Tag: gay Author Tag: lesbian Author Tag: parent Author Tag: queer Author Tag: white Content Notice: lack of acceptance Content Notice: religion Content Notice: religious trauma Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource All Anthology Poems Description An account of the resource This is a collection of all poems currently available to read in the Anthology. To browse poems by author identity tags, <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/tag-index" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">visit the tag index</a> or <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/search" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">try our advanced search</a>. Poem Contains text information about individual contributors to the anthology. Text Any textual data included in the document anything you say, do, or think, can and will be used against you in the court of God. don’t think that you can ever escape, because this feeling will follow you for generations, will haunt you as long as you live. i am so sorry. remember “jesus loves you”, even though that sounds like a lie when they talk. so, knit your web of lies, and let it protect you from their malice. because some day nothing they said will matter anymore. one morning, you will wake up, proud of who you are, quiet and strong and ready to fight (or move on—if you’re better than me). sin is just a word, and perhaps tomorrow you will find that everything, everywhere, the entire universe—is yours for the taking. vehement hatred will only take them so far, when their godliness is built on a foundation of sand, like the xeric desert their faith is. You are a God unto yourself, and one day, they instead will burn in the heat of Your zeal. — <a href="https://waqueeranth.omeka.net/items/show/44">Niko P. (they/them)</a> Content Warnings Warnings about any potentially harmful or triggering content present in the text. religious trauma anti LGBTQ hate religion Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource ABECEDARIAN FOR MY YOUNGER SELF Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Niko Pen Author Tag: activist Author Tag: atheist Author Tag: gay Author Tag: Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander Author Tag: neurodivergent Author Tag: nonbinary Author Tag: queer Content Notice: anti-LGBTQ hate Content Notice: religion Content Notice: religious trauma