Elizabeth Bishop

Elizabeth Bishop
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The Gay Art
The Shower
Insomnia
Stillness
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The Gay Art

“Write it!”
—Elizabeth Bishop
“One Art”

the art of being gay—
can be hard to master
so many things are str8t

there’s always loss—
with the difficult art of
being gay each day

being gay each day—
suddenly in the NYTimes
Fashion and Style Section!!!

the closeted Fifties—
it gets better as time goes by
the younger gays need me

pretend you're my lover—
lesbos fag hag if you prefer
the art of being gay isn’t disaster

The Shower

“your black hair”
—Elizabeth Bishop
“The Shampoo”

the still explosions—
convulsing your cliff
where lichens grow

concentric shocks—
arranging themselves
rings around your moon

so pretty & practical—
just look what happens
when you’re amenable

memories about you—
your pragmatical pussy
your black pubes so shiny

so gay, so sleek—
come, let me wash it in
my old tin battered basin

Insomnia

“the bureau mirror”
—Elizabeth Bishop
“Insomnia”

my bedroom bureau mirror—
always disgusted with me
never smiling at my tricks

miss mirror never smiles—
she's seen too much of me
my sleepwalker lies

my mirror deserts me—
wrapping my silly cares
in cobwebs of time

mirrors are so perverted—
i’m dropping down a well
there's no bottom to it

mirrors are deep—
deep as the deep blue sea
my stay is brief

Stillness

“subaqueous stillness”
—Elizabeth Bishop
“Sonnet”

once i needed love to flow—
smoothed by your finger-tips
feeling fretful in bed

my bitter-tainted lips—
got tired of trembling guyz and
the same old picture show

no healing romance—
just the same old swan song
men can be so stupid

give me female magic—
making things right quietly
sinking into fading evenings

subaqueous stillness—
the sea as moon-green pool
held in the arms of sleep