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Dear Baby Gay, (A Letter to My Young Self)
Golden Eras are a myth. Don’t believe the party was better 15 minutes before you arrived. Your dancefloors can survive the apocalypse but your spaces are always in danger. Love your bars and backup your pictures often. You come from poets but lack the vocabulary for shame and addiction. Don’t drink on an angry stomach. If an older man offers you meth knowing it’s your first time, he is not your friend. You may be what a loved one loses on their way to rock bottom. Queerness is not an immunity to white supremacy, if anything, it’s a blind spot. You owe your slang to Black women. You’ll sacrifice too much for masculinity and not be told enough how beautiful your femininity is. You don’t need to slave at a gym to be loved. If your body is all you have to offer, you’ll always come up short. Everyone thinks everyone is having more sex. Hookup apps are just one tool in an arsenal, so learn the art of the cruise. Sex work is work. You can love it, but if you hate it, it can steal your soul. COVID-19 is your second pandemic. The AIDS crisis was not a punishment, it was neglect. Homophobia is rooted in jealousy. Yes, it gets better…but also impossible in ways you cannot imagine, because this world lacks the imagination for people like you.
Entire religions have called you their end and drained you of deities, but there will always be enough Sundays for your Queer divinity.
-Leo Herrera
Dear Baby Gay is on page 72 of POST, my debut book of poems and essay memes.
1 minute video on the writing process for Dear Baby Gay. Poetry reading and bonus content for paid subscribers.
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