Keith F. Miller, Jr.

un-fagoted

it is a tragic kind of beauty
far from soft and limp-wristed,
when the body is erect,
arrested in mid-flight,
gait sugar-y, neck taut,
hair slick with fear-sweat,
cutting through air like water.

//

your my life: ephemeral, a one-sided prayer
steeped in the aftertaste of normal.

//

normal: to be suspended in dis-belief, where his-belief
be-comes geysers of salty-sweet lining the gums,
lips curled over teeth, a balmy slick between both sets of cheeks
splitting self into other, waiting for the finale.

//

your my body: your temple, best worshipped with
sacred violation, begging to be entered.

//

love: with or without sheets, as hate fucks
what it envies most and never tenderly. only when it hurts
can it be re-membered, hoarse where the voice once was.
to soothe the burn, you must swallow self multiplied and
then divided, somewhere between precious and pain.

//

our death: living, a tongue charred against
blue-black lips, liberties taken.

Keith F. Miller, Jr. is an award-winning educator, artist-researcher, author, and producer (queer)in(g) the Deep South whose work explores masculinity, sexuality, intimacy, and art as a form of resistance, transformation, and healing through trauma. Founder of The Pillow Talk Project and Healing By Any Means, LLC. he works to power people, projects, and research through arts, media, and culture for the purpose of narrative and systems change. Keith has been profiled in Scalawag, Savannah Magazine, and AfroPunk and his creative work is featured/forthcoming in Proem, Post Journal, The English Journal, Strangers in Different Ink (2016), and /masc: Conversations on Modern Masculinity. Keith is an M.F.A candidate in Creative Writing at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, NY.