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.