shouldn’t we get an award or something for that?”
Partin whispers as we turn
Our heads like zoo goers watching
Animals in cages. With all
Their colors, it wouldn’t surprise me
If someone shouted
“Amazing”
or used the rifle hanging in the window
of their pickup truck to hunt exotic pelts.
It’s so unusual here to find
Someone not of pale snow or cream
Walking the streets that
They all turn their heads
And stare
Like they’re watching zoo animals
In cages.
Emily Ramser grew up in Sacramento's gay district, or at least experienced puberty there, but later moved to the southern Bible-belt of North Carolina to finish out her high school career. Rather than average society, she prefers to surround herself with furries, Baptist seminary students, and high school dropouts. Emily works with Impact Magazine editing religious testimonies and translating them into Spanish and is also a reporter and columnist for Wake Forest-Rolesville High School's paper, The Forest Fire. She has been published multiple magazines, but prefers to stick business cards with her poems scribbled on the back on coffee shop bulletin boards.