Attempting to Behead the Grounded:
When the grapefruit sun shines on my left cheek
awakening flames/ giving light to the unseen
my face becomes global, with bodies galore.
You see: a birthplace,
ancestors, and traces of oddities like me.
Brown femmes carve a place
in the constellating universe.
Now you know we’re stars.
The moon glitters on my right cheek
where a conglomerate celebration of
faggots, fats, femmes, and
poets, take place.
Your palms gently open,
inviting us to stay.
Hands, large and deep
like pits for cadavers
with defiance.
Would you smack this face
that stands firm like a monolith?
Attempt to behead a grounded head?
A weak fist encounters solid rock.
Unable to break us unless you’ve hit
a dozen times least.
My face is home to queers
that shine under the sun and moon
to (trans)form stars.
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Jimena Lucero is a poet, artist, and actor from NYC. She graduated with a B.A. in English from Hunter College. She is a Pink Door fellow and you can find her writing at Colorbloq.org, The Center for Humanities, and more. Jimena has performed at venues like the Brooklyn Museum, Poetry Project, and Flux Factory.
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