Today's poem is by Julie Marie Wade
When I Was Straight
I did not love women as I do now.
I loved them with my eyes closed, my back turned.
I loved them silent, & startled, & shy.The world was a dreamless slumber party,
sleeping bags like straitjackets spread out on
the living room floor, my face pressed into aslender pillow.
All night I woke to rain on the strangers' windows.
No one remembered to leave a light on in the hall.
Someone's father seemed always to be shaving.When I stood up, I tried to tiptoe
around the sleeping bodies, their long hair
speckled with confetti, their faces blanched by theporch-light moon.
I never knew exactly where the bathroom was.
I tried to wake the host girl to ask her, but she was
only one adrift in that sea of bodies. I was ashamedto say they all looked the same tome, beautiful &
untouchable as stars. It would be years before
I learned to find anyone in the sumptuous,terrifying dark.
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Copyright © 2014 Julie Marie Wade All rights reserved
from When I Was Straight
A Midsummer Night’s Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission
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