top of page

  You could have a big dipper   

reverse ghazal w/o landscape by Liam Strong




not even the sky is a land w/o country. or is it a country

w/o land? William is a name that doesn’t require a coffin.


it can lay outside the planked pentameter, in grassy country.

is any land good enough to bury a trans person when the meanings


of their names don’t coincide? until there is such a queer country,

i don’t know where home is. bones are made of belief


that they will connect, bend, run. mine must be from a country

where yogurt & freshly split oak logs were used. like limbs


are meant to, my name translates to resolute protector, not of a country

but a nation. there must be a difference. i don’t care.


limbs meant to protect? embrace? sure. coffins procure the country

of death & deadnames, so i must belong there. or i’m doing wrong for


my nation, my people. are these the same, too? the definition of country

suggests a nation w/ its own government, occupying a particular


territory. where am i? oh. that’s right. the country

i am in is called Michigan. this is complicated. but i am


a particular. i am occupied by droves of myself, so much country

crinkled into a single space. i only weigh 140 lbs. that’s not much


ground for growth. i seep into soil. i fluid into the unseen country

of fungi, mycelium of connective tissue. flesh axis of us.


of our multitudinous. anywhere will do. once you name a country,

you create expectations. imagine that: land having to live forever


w/o getting the privilege to name itself. land is embarrassed of country.

i am embarrassed of country. of how its name doesn’t fit its land-


scape. you don’t need a flag, a helmet of will. a country

is just one room. i’m satisfied w/o a name. i’m satisfied w/ never knowing.


 

LiamStrong (they/them) is a queer poet, essayist, and music critic. They serve as Chapbook Coordinator for Michigan Writers Cooperative Press. You can find their poetry and essays in Impossible Archetype, Lunch Ticket, Rathalla Review, Ghost Proposal, and Glass Mountain, among several others. They live in Traverse City, Michigan.

31 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page