Alien and Invasive

 by Brett Rutherford

In the language of exclusion,

queer means

not harmlessly eccentric

but dangerously odd,

not just outcast, outside,

unwelcome by nature,

but eager to convert,

recruit, corrupt, seduce.

How would it feel

to be called a weed,

a more sinister slang

for "garden escapee," —

How stung would you be

to have beside your name

as asterisk, footnoted

"alien and invasive species." —

How being on lists

to be anathematized,

lobotomized and

sterilized, must feel —

How walking fast

on certain blocks

in front of taverns,

playgrounds, you hope

just not to be noticed —

How being told

by the holy fathers

you are condemned to Hell,

and lawyers who fight

for civil rights, avert

their eyes when yours

are being taken —

The weed, the wolf,

the furtive coyote,

the creeping vine

with trumpet flowers

in rainbow hue --

we are just one

of every ten of you.