This isn't my writing just thought it was cool.
WHAT I MEAN WHEN I SAY THAT I AM LIBERAL
I would spend my last thirty bucks on a painting in a thrift store.
I love the smell of brioche.
I buy my bath soap from lesbians, yes it is made from oatmeal.
I have laughed in the kitchens of expensive restaurants
With the Mexicans who help to prepare 150. dollar meals
Wash the dishes afterwards,
And know we are having the better evening.
At the sight of two chubby, bearded bears –huge tattooed guys
Drinking beer in combat boots
Cuddling during gay pride
As the sun sets over San Francisco, my heart does grow warm.
And later, when wind blows their kilts up, revealing massive furry butts
Matching Prince Alberts, I can feel those elusive tears of joy.
A blessing where I live isn’t given by the priest who takes ten percent of my paycheck.
A blessing is when the cute guy behind the counter at The Grove
Throws a free shot of Espresso into my Doppio Con Panna.
A blessing is the landlord being cool about the rent-that’s the hand of God to me.
My soul is moved by break dancers, titty dancers, salsa dancers.
A miracle is when I come out of my apartment in the morning and the local graffiti artist Gives me a two story tall, Big E. Smalls, and recently did you see it? -Christopher Reeve
Flew out of his wheelchair, beat death as Superman!
Flying across the wall of Chinese dry cleaners those American biceps,
Fingertips stretching ever closer to the Golden Gate, and heaven.
Fashion stylists, Hairdressers, Drag queens, are the closest I get to secret societies
When they gather is circle, everyone waits reverentially
We all agree we do not know what they know
Powerful as Alan Greenspan, Heklina wants to tell me this:
God loves me when I’m helping out in the nursing home!
God loves me when I’m fucking a beautiful man named Charlie in the bathroom of the Eagle!
God wants me to know there’s a sale at Macy’s Men in Union Square, pink and green are back.
You are wrong when you say I do not love our troops,
I support our troops-I salute our troops: I bow down to our troops!
Our troops of motel housekeepers, immigrant farm workers, swish decorators,
Grumpy diva-ish poets, dreamy, idealistic sex-crazed college kids, small town hairdressers,
Big city gurus who talk like God. Legions of promiscuous off-Broadway actors,
Ignored seniors ready to sound-off, blinged out hip-hoppers with P. Diddy dreams.
I support our troops of tired, frustrated single mothers.
I wonder if they have everything they need to fight the war.
I worry the battle is giving them a trauma disorder.
I think we need to send them a care package.
George Washington was thinking of me kissing a boy on ecstasy at 3 o’clock in the morning When he fought the British.
He’d want me to feel that young mans hard cock through his jeans,
Put my tongue in his mouth
In a dark corner of The End Up.
That Jefferson wants me have the best organic produce is self-evident;
Every Sunday his folk band The Tanglers rocks out the Farmers Market
At the Ferry building.
The melodies of his guitar tickle the heirloom tomatoes,
Float over the Bay Bridge all the way over to Oakland.
When I say that I am a liberal let me be clear what I mean;
The woman who has done the most for me in life is a bisexual humanities teacher,
Yes at an Ivy League school, yes she also happens to be Jewish and does this make it better?
-A psychologist, you might even say a feminist.
She talked me down from the top of the Sears building when at 24
A man I loved told me I did not look at all like his ideal boyfriend.
Three years later I cradled her head in my lap as she cried from the tomoxophen and the Radiation when she did not believe she would beat the breast cancer-but did.
This 63-year-old woman with a Ph.D and one breast is a rock star to me.
When she calls me to tell me in a rush of excitement that she finally learned
How to make the perfect foam for her cappuccino,
And why don’t I come over and smoke a joint to celebrate. Well.
I almost write her name in on Election Day.
That is what I mean when I say that I’m a liberal.
Troy Ygnacio Soriano
Vermont Studio Center
Johnson, Vermont
November 9, 2004
Tomorrow I'm 24
15 years ago
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