Queen
– for Fifi Nicks
We are kin,
thou my better,
you fight for rights equally
fighting the primal level
“Wrong because it's wrong”
has lingered for centuries
I whose every move
was built
thanks to the backs
of standing people like you
I who am not black
of anything but skin
I who am people judged
therefore as white
“Jokes”--the liars--
I,
look up
you are not an it but a person
on stage a she
later a he
despite not changing
genitally
the shift as shaft
is there naturally
The creative spark
in you a flame
(unconcealable da light)
in you a pain
(inconceivable the might)
in you a fame
and in you a dame
but in you no blame
for we are all the same
They say “you're in drag”
but we know their wrong
society's apart of us
that you have overcome
standing so regal
my queen & my liege
Why can't a man do or be as a woman
Why can't a woman do or be as a man
this I can't understand:
“let us vote,” they rightly said
“treat us the same
there is in us a brain”
but after a pause people add
“and who is to say
in whose side more fain
to such, and such, and such and such?”
I can, in drag-ging words
that one lie is ingrained
differently for many
that one lie is chained
but the truth, the answer, the key
will only ever be 'Ne-
ither'
you bring a bra on stage
I bring a baron pen
you wear a flowing
screaming dress
whereas I flow on through
a quiet little volume
you dance or sing or ...
And I,
write a poem
trying to show
in my inadequate
timid lay
what you prove
in a far more daring
far more caring
way.
Queen by Jamal Chandler is a Blasted Tree original poem