A POEM by ALEX ROMERO
All About My Sexuality
My sexuality is the opening sentence of a book and the closing line of a poem. My sexuality is something so holy, its feet never touch the ground. My sexuality wears red nail polish and skates at Tompkins Square Park with the boys. My sexuality smokes light blue American Spirits. My sexuality uses the most expensive lube from Rite Aid. My sexuality is an Equal Opportunity Employer that offers medical coverage, paid time off, tuition reimbursement, and remote work. My sexuality doesn't charge extra for oat milk. My sexuality feels like the summer Frank Ocean dropped Channel Orange. My sexuality gets fined for jumping the turnstile. My sexuality still doesn't have a driver's license. My sexuality fucked Grimace on his birthday. My sexuality is on rollback at Walmart. My sexuality slips twenty dollar bills into the Naked Cowboy’s jockstrap. My sexuality can shotgun a Four Loko. My sexuality is a shitty stick-and-poke from college. My sexuality tips 25%. My sexuality is a legendary Pokémon encounter. My sexuality got hammered at the Glee Live Concert. My sexuality dropped out of Coding Bootcamp. My sexuality just won the Nobel Prize.
Alex Romero is the Founding Editor of Speakeasy Magazine and a staff writer for Surging Tide Magazine. A second-year MFA student at Columbia University, he holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College. His words have been recently published or are forthcoming in Fugue Journal, Drunk Monkeys, Maudlin House, Fleas on the Dog, and The Coachella Review, among other places. He has been long-listed for Uncharted Magazine's Novel Excerpt Contest. His short story, “Our Little Manila,” was selected by Tia Clark as a finalist for the Plentitudes Prize in Fiction. He is the recipient of scholarships and fellowships from Lambda Literary, Key West Literary Seminar, the Joseph F. McCrindle Foundation, Tin House, and more. A Queens native, he is a lifelong resident of New York, where he is writing his first novel. Find him on Instagram: @lil__papo