After yesterday’s poem’s utter bleakness it’s time for something corny.
It’s also Kate Bornstein‘s birthday. If anyone can pull off corny with pizzaz, it’s her. Today’s poem is a Petrarchan Sonnet. I love the rhyme scheme, to me, it has the edge on the (still to come) Shakespearian sonnet: it’s elegant and quirky and pensive. Again, like Kate.
Happy Birthday, my dear Twitter Auntie, who tweets love and encouragement and inspiration every day. (@katebornstein if you’re wanting to join the twibe)
How many of us feel we are alone?
– Like outlaws in a world that doesn’t care –
How many of us fall into despair
With no community to call our own?
How many of us would not still survive
If we’d not heard, before it was too late,
The benediction of our Auntie Kate:
“Do what you need to do to stay alive.”?
How many of us draw our strength and pride
From her, to co-create our own queer scene
And live life by the rule “Just don’t be mean!”
Because we know that Kate is on our side?
How many of us smile to hear her say
“G’night – your Auntie loves you – and g’day”?
xoxo
Tom Juniper Poetry 