queer struggle

queers like us ache to carve ourselves starring roles in the pageant

called gay rights. become picture-perfect

assimilated gays who’ve never once had a challenging emotion

queers like us can’t have problems, can we? if we do, you will realize

your system hurts our chosen family

queers like us create the illusion of the normal

erase the damage your cis straight patriarchal capitalist

mainstream does to us, the way a slur not yet reclaimed

burns like death on queer skin. appeasement is our world–

jerks like you might even feel guilty about your queer-antagonism

if you realized trolling caused actual pain

we are the palatable queers in stock photos and wholesome tv shows

eternal smiles, then struggle that paints our existence

as tragic. we don’t talk about activist burnout

pretend not to know minority stress is a thing that exists

objects of begrudging acceptance

or pity, never radical queer love

maybe we can become the queers who declare to straight society

we are done being perfect humans.

i am not your ambassador of homosexuality

doomed to keep smiling for your straight gaze

never discover the liberated queer i can embody

not your sob story, not the teenage statistic

you trot out to make donors to your “nonprofit” (almost a corporation at this point)

feel straight and self-important.

our queerness is everything your system stands against—

both a revolutionary tool and the way my heart

bursts into queer love and mild panic when i see any other womxn

our queer struggle is not yours to claim.