Okay, so I guess I'm in love
with a man who's into wrestling.
That's fine. I've been building
myself up to this for years:
loving people who are into
things I will never understand.
Loving people who are into
bands that sound like banging trashcans
and weed that smells like dead bodies.
I remember that night in your car
on the way home from the Thai
restaurant in Gadsden, I asked
you about wrestling and listened
intently as you told me
things I never thought I'd want to know.
But I want to know these things
because they're important to you.
I want to hear the entrance music
of your favorite fighters and
hear the tragic backstories
of the ones who didn't
make it out alive.
I would listen to you talk
all day, if you'd let me.
I'd dive even deeper into all your
interests, if I could.
Rachel Tanner is a queer, disabled writer from Alabama whose work has recently appeared in Tenderness Lit, Wine Cellar Press, and elsewhere. She has a monthly videogame writing column in Videodame and she tweets @rickit.