Calling poets to a greater role in public life and fostering a national network of socially engaged poets.
By Kamilah Aisha MoonAdded: Monday, July 14, 2014 / Used with permission.-- to Shirley Q. Liquor, Drag Queen in Blackface
When you're gay in Dixie,you're a clown of a desperate circus.
Sometimes the only way to be like daddyis to hate like him--
hope your brothers laugh
instead of shoot,
wrap a confederate skirt around your waist.
You traded glamour for nasty tricks--dethroning your mammy's image for dollars
that will never cover so much debt,
unraveling years she lost
loving you for a living.
Kamilah Aisha Moon's (1973-2021) work was featured in Harvard Review, jubilat, The Awl, and Poem-A-Day for the Academy of American Poets. She was selected as a New American Poet presented by the Poetry Society of America, a Pushcart Prize winner, and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. A native of Nashville, TN, Moon was the author of She Has a Name (Four Way Books) and received an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College.