We’ve gone pale all over, a capital drain …
heidi andrea restrepo rhodes
if the heart of the bell breaks …
I: My beloved is called an inconceivable beast, a spectacle diagnosed with teratoid genitalia, a chaos of pronouns, a body breaking the rules. Hair & suture & unexpected timbre, outside the map. My beloved is first in the firing line. In the active shooter drill, given no refuge. We are expunged from curricula, disallowed the toilet’s relief. Fascistic tendencies festering. National evangelism of binaries taken as daily bread. A congressman in Florida jokes about putting us all to death, a pastor in Texas gives Sunday Sermon saying every gay person in America should be executed—lined up & shot in the head. The Supreme Court stuffs its mouth with theories of religion. Police steel our kin down to concrete & coffin. A brass & parabellum cessation of breath. …