Parting Words: FIFTY YEARS LATER AND

FIFTY YEARS LATER AND
HELLO
WE CAN’T SAY THANK YOU
ENOUGH i mean eye/we got distracted by aids
if you’d believe it crisis took shift to come
above ground one SUMMER OF 69’
MOLOTOVCOCKTAIL PACKED
STONEWALL to stone wall
brick holder BRICK BAT FREEDOMS
built brick by brick
— goodbye!!!
THE FIRST PRIDE WAS A PROTEST
FIREworks SMOKEshow
RENEGADE RIOT
bright red eye flag sometimes
bruise_ slant invented a/new
password:
REVOLUTION
fresh blood (we can’t inhabit
language (a full
picture
we have this invention/habit
always coming up short WE GRAB
and then abandon halfway thr
(it was me) a fact/my ph_ase) THE MIC
AN INTERRUPTION
TO my poem is too chaotic
difficult
to print) CELEBRATE / DECLARE
fetish red lacquer lips nails fish nets
heart buttocks red brick latex cock
PRIDE a too bright swinging eye keep
seeing your face
YOU CAN SEE THIS –
MORE THAN MARRIAGE
YOU CAN SEE THIS –
BLACK LIVES MATTER
PROTECT TRANS* LIFE
YOU CAN READ THIS –
MY AUTHORITY
MY BODY
MY PARTY
MY FIST

Illustration by Tori Hong “In honor of Marsha P. Johnson and the Stonewall queens”
Lisa Marie Brimmer is the co-editor of Queer Voices of Minnesota: Poetry, Prose, and Pride, from the Minnesota Historical Society Press.