Artwork © Janis Butler Holm

 

Here

Here’s my pride month eulogy.
Here’s to the death of the child in me.

We don’t get to come of age,
We don’t grow up like straight kids—

I got to cry in my bedroom alone,
I got to wish that someone could
Wish me a happy pride month. I wished
Anyone would say anything. [Unseen]

Can you hold me?
Pride’s about visibility.

Be what I didn’t have.
Make up for time lost.

Let’s dance how we always wanted.
Let’s say what what we meant, let’s

Be who we’ve been for a while
Now— We didn’t know who we were,

We thought it wasn’t allowed.
Today I dance for that child that died in

Me. That kid that never did the shit she
Thought the world condemned.

Now the child is gone. This one’s for her.

 

Maya Collins is a queer biracial poet. They are a rising Sophomore in college as a double major in Studio Art and English Writing. Their work is published or forthcoming in multiple venues, including Bottlecap Press, Anti-Heroin Chic, and The Girls Write Now 2024 Anthology.

Janis Butler Holm served as Associate Editor for Wide Angle, the film journal, and currently works as a writer and editor in sunny Los Angeles. Her prose, poems, art, and performance pieces have appeared in small-press, national, and international magazines. Her plays have been produced in the U.S., Canada, Russia, and the U.K.