From the Archive: Ahimsa Timoteo Bodhrán (CAROUSEL 24)
AHIMSA TIMOTEO BODHRÁN
Vergüenza
He didn’t realize the shame of being Native was the same
as the shame in being queer. The shame of wanting to touch
something, someone, his hands reaching towards trees but
looking around before touching, or touching so brief it
might be brusk, might bruise the branches, tear a leaf, rip
acorn from what was once tender grasp. Soon he wondered
the ways in which, during the years he has closeted, was his
touch sometimes quick, veering to be discovered, and still
now, out with it all, was he wondering, wondering with
that, wondering in what further ways he refrained, wanted
to, refrained again, from touching the limbs of men, their
warm trunks, their strong bodies, and did he turn from them
the way he turned from trees, unfortunate, into the night?
Vergüenza
appeared in CAROUSEL 24 (2009) — buy it here
