By Tauwan Patterson
Copyright ©2024
he stood tall and upright on the corner,
shirtless, paused for the road.
though it was slightly dark out, I could see him clearly,
glistening like a caramel greek god,
all muscle and black excellence grit.
tonight I was part of his audience,
but one with cheap seats in the stands
as I approached my red light going west.
his audience of two white males with front row seats revealed themselves standing mouths agape, lost
in performative conversation a foot or so before me at a green
they could have taken but of course didn’t.
quickly zeus put his shirt back on.
quickly he pulled out his phone and submitted to it.
quickly he crossed the street,
heading southward when his light turned green.
my unknown cameo appearance deflated the intimacy.
once again I cockblocked unknowingly.
ABOUT: Tauwan Patterson
“Hailing from South Central, Los Angeles, Tauwan Patterson is a Black + Queer Poet and recent graduate of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Queens University of Charlotte, North Carolina. His work has appeared in online literary magazines Cool Beans Lit, 3rd Wednesday Magazine, and Muse-Pie Press’ Shot Glass Issue #41, and will also appear in the forthcoming Moonstone Arts Center anthology Which Side Are You On?!, the Winter Issue of Rise Up Review, Porkbelly Press’ Love Me, Love My Belly zine, the Rising Phoenix Review, the Academy of the Heart and Mind, The Amazine, Arteidolia, Bardball, and JMWW. With his poetry Tauwan aims to, in the words of the great Poet and Thinker Marcus Jackson, announce his freedom and presence. Making a sound that echoes in the end that says Tauwan Patterson. No more. No less.”
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