At McMenamins on Hawthorne

Emily Moon

I’m alone, sipping cider at the McMenamins pub
below the Bagdad Theater.

While dinner prepares to come to my table,
I admire the woman who belches

as she walks out the door to the street.
Cars tiptoe to traffic signals,

blink at the blossoming evening. The sky melts
from deep cis azure of the gloaming

to trans pink, blue, and white at the horizon.
Couples walk past their mutable reflections

on shop and restaurant windows.
Gay light strings festooned from awnings

add fairy magic to the scene.
Watching the streetscape fills me with longing,

carries me to a cozy place I’d like to be:
in the arms of one who loves me.

Emily Moon (she/her) is a transgender poet from Portland, Ore. She is Editor at First Matter Press. Her book It’s Just You and Me, Miss Moon, was published by First Matter Press prior to her taking on an editorial role. Her work includes appearances in or is forthcoming from Pile Press, Hecate Magazine, Firefly Review, Mulberry Literary, Labyrinth Anthologies, Brazos River Review, Solstice Literary Magazine, En*gendered Literary Magazine, Ethel Zine and elsewhere.

© Variant Literature Inc 2021