Tampa Bay poet Tyler Gillespie reflects as Pride gets cancelled in some Florida cities

a poem for Pride as it gets cancelled in some Florida cities

We crawled from the ocean       to get to this beach
then argued       over who can sit on its sand.

I mean, I may not know much       about science
but weren’t we all in the same primordial goo?

Didn’t we all adapt       to land & language?
I never learned those details.       Southern Baptists

taught me God made humans       & there’d be more
moondust if science       were true.       Animals like me

went to hell for doing what we do.       I tried to change.
Pressed my ear to shell.       Only heard you. A million years

passed: the storm is nothing new.       At first, this poem thought
it would trace Florida’s homophobia       from the Johns Committee

in the 1950s       to Anita Bryant’s campaign in the 70s       to now.
This poem thought it would make a political statement       about history

& book bans & fascism & saying gay & voting & civil liberties & trans youth
& safety concerns & healthcare & LGBTQ+ elders & the government & demanding

change.       This poem thought it would be political, but deep down it felt
the thumpa thumpa music of a parade       so it put on lipstick, eyelashes

a dress & a wig then shimmied       into the sea       of Pinellas Queens
& Floridians who want to clean the red tide.       This poem danced

all day. Got sweaty       flirted & even consensually made out
with another poem who understood       its form.

Pride helped this poem realize       we will withstand
these waves & our joy is a resistance itself.

—Tyler Gillespie (2023)

This article appears in May 25-31, 2023.