Prairie Queer Fiction

PRAIRIE QUEER FICTION

 _______________

PRAIRIE QUEER FICTION

“Might it not be that all the

people we know are only

what we imagine them to be?”

—Sherwood Anderson, A Writer’s

Conception of Realism

____________

It seems like a—

FICTION to me now

The Fly Over State

Here I am—

Out here on the

Pacific West Coast

________________

Going thru photos—

Old scrapbooks and

Prairie memorabilia

Did I actually—

Live way back there

In the Kansas Midwest?

 

QUEER RFD

“For Theodore Roosevelt,

rural men and women

represented the very “stay

and strength of the nation

in time of war, and its

guiding and controlling

spirit in time of peace.”

—Colin R. Johnson, Just

Queer Folks: Gender and

Sexuality in Rural America

________

But not just that—

Rural America provided

Soldiers & fighter pilots

To fill the ranks—

Of all those world wars

And overseas conflicts

________

Going back thru some—

Old photo albums that are

Decaying into Forgetfulness

I came across this pic—

Entitled rather adroitly

“Welcome Home Hero”

__________

Yes, my dears—

There I was with Daddy

And all the relatives

Nobody knew then—

I was a ditzy queen…

Queer RFD incarnate

GROWING UP GAY IN KANSAS

“Queer activists and queer

scholars have little use for

“benevolent toleration” these

days.” — Colin R. Johnson,

Just Queer Folks: Gender and

Sexuality in Rural America

___________

Things changed though—

Once my nelly faggotry

Became quite apparent

Yes, Daddy Dearest—

Once I told him way

Back then in college

________

He cursed me just—

Simply awful, refusing

To ever talk to me again

To my great dismay—

I had a rather nasty

Nervous breakdown

_________

Becoming the victim—

Of a near fatal bleed

Nasty peptic ulcer

So much for str8t—

Small town Kansas

Homonormativity

RFD QUEER THEORY

“Indeed, many of them

understandably question

how “benevolent” toleration

can ever really be in a

society that is structurally

heteronormative as American

society is.” — Colin R. Johnson,

Just Queer Folks: Gender and

Sexuality in Rural America

_______________

Actually, my dears—

Growing up in a Midwestern

Small college town wasn’t

That much different than—

Being a fag farmboy out

There in the Kansas sticks

_______________

FFA Boys in their butchy—

Cowboy boots and blue

Corduroy tight jackets

They didn’t much like—

Faggots any better than

Daddy Dearest did

_________

Animal husbandry—

Was totally, completely

Hetero, honey

No fucking around—

At the County Fair &

Gawd NO at the Rodeo!!!

GAY INTOLERANCE

“This is partly because

seeking to be “tolerated”

hardly constitutes a

particularly high bar for

meaningful social

transformation.”

—Colin R. Johnson, Just

Queer Folks: Gender and

Sexuality in Rural America

_________

For a nelly little queen—

Nothing I did could ever

Justify any kind of tolerance

I suppose if I’d have been—

A flaming queenly queer

High School Cheerleader

__________

Like Jimmy Stevens was—

I could’ve got away with

Lots of hanky-panky stuff

Scoffed at and tolerated—

As just a dizzy nelly fag at

All the basketball games

_____________

Sneered at sarcastically—

As just a Pom-Pom Queen

Nothing but a Circus Clown

Harmless, of course—

Just one of the local girls

Having a funny dishy time

DISHY DÉTENTE

“But it is also because

toleration usually ends

up as strained détente—

a highly compromised

form of “freedom” and

an arrangement that

arguably helps to bolster

the social and political

legitimacy of the dominant

faction.” — Colin R. Johnson,

Just Queer Folks: Gender and

Sexuality in Rural America

____________

One could become a—

Queer hairdresser, maybe

A queer church organist

Perhaps a gay jewelry—

Store owner specializing

In nice str8t wedding rings

____________

Maybe a nelly pianist—

Mincing about there in the

Local little teacher’s college

But still everybody knew—

Especially all the married

Kiwanis small town members

___________

Mocking the bachelorhood—

Of those that stayed behind

To endure the chastisement

The lucky faggot few—

Who didn’t have to tolerate

Nagging wives and brats

HETERO HAUGHTINESS

“Unfortunately dominant

factions are often

responsible for creating

conditions of intolerance

in the first place.”

—Colin R. Johnson, Just

Queer Folks: Gender and

Sexuality in Rural America

___________

There was this rather—

Effeminate grocery store

Long-time gay employee

Who had to tolerate—

Once a year the prejudice

And effrontery of Str8ts

___________

At the tacky local—

Emporia Kiwanis Club

Evening get-togethers

A small-town rendition—

Elitist British Men’s Club

Snotty Str8t Snobbery

____________

They’d sing this special—

Song to their one and only

Unmarried Faggot Bachelor

Snarky singing their—

Haughty trashy superior

Homophobic intolerance

CYNICAL QUEERDOM

“Thus, queers who openly

express suspicion about

the notion of “tolerance”

are probably justified.”

—Colin R. Johnson, Just

Queer Folks: Gender and

Sexuality in Rural America

___________

After our gay cheerleader—

Jimmy Stevens died of AIDS

In New York City early on

Yours truly tres realized—

Surely gays were doomed

Whether they escaped from

____________

Small-town tacky Kansas—

Or whether they lived in gay

NYC or San Francisco

So much for gay Tolerance—

Hundreds of thousands of

Gays dropped dead like flies

_______________

Even now with safe sex—

And new anti-viral advances

The Band Still Just Plays On

Big City Gay Liberation—

Wouldn’t it be safer to be

Small town KS closet case?