Lodestar Quarterly

Lodestar Quarterly
Figure reaching for a star Issue 2 • Summer 2002 • Poetry

butch femme east county love poem

Dani Montgomery

you can be the hero of my country song
drive up in your truck
and take me for a ride
c'mon
you can buy me beers
i'll buy you tequila shots
you can open the door for me
i'll wear that black skirt you like
you can slide your hand
up my thigh in the diner
i can feed you orange slices in bed
you can bite that soft spot behind my left ear
i can make you scream
like you swore you wouldn't
you can feel free
to leave marks across my ass

we can piss my whole family off
making out on easter morning
we can send your dad off hunting
and your mom to bed with a headache
by just showing up

i can bind your breasts
clip the ace bandage
so the pins won't stick
i can kiss your nipples hard
when you release them

you can hold my hand
when cops spit at us
i can hold your hand
when men swear at us
i can weild a knife
you can throw some mean punches
we can go down with a hell of a fight
if we have to

you can sing me alan jackson
i can sing you willie nelson
we can turn the radio up
and laugh about all those times
our folks were broke

i can smoke
and you can tell me not to
i can love the way you wear your jeans
you can love how i sweat
through the armpits of all my dresses
you can wash the dishes
i can forget to do the laundry
you can teach me how to shoot
i can teach you to steal and not get caught
you can bring me daisies
i'll bring you gardenias

c'mon let's go
i know the words already
you gotta help me sing

Dani Montgomery is a 24-year-old poet and activist. She teaches creative writing and runs a youth internship program for the San Francisco Arts Commission's WritersCorps program. She also works for The Center for Young Women's Development, an organization that works with young women involved in the juvenile justice system and underground street economies to promote social change and self-determination. She has been published in a number of magazines and anthologies, including: Revolutionary Voices, The Civil Disobedience Handbook, The Santa Clara Review, and Anything That Moves.

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