a bad gay guard

in the garden behind my toddler
gymnastics center, probably near
where we once found the live garter

snake, i am playing bad guys
with the boys of Rebounders.
they keep saying i’m a bad guy

& bad girl doesn’t feel like the right
way to say it so i say i’m a bad gay
(which is ironic considering

i would later be such a bad gay that i
didn’t know i was even gay until i was almost
twenty one) & the boys say i’m a bad guy

guard & i have always wanted
to belong so i say i am a bad gay guard
& we’re three so no one questions me.

nat raum (b. 1996) is a disabled artist, writer, and genderless disaster from Baltimore, MD. They’re the editor-in-chief of fifth wheel press, as well as the author of you stupid slut, the abyss is staring back, random access memory, and several chapbooks. Find them online: natraum.com/links.