Author Archives: Joe
About Joe
Brrrr 🥶
As my weatherman said this morning, we are entering the freezer. It’s going to be cold. Our low temperatures for the next four days are: 3° F, -1° F, 0° F, 0° F. We won’t get out of the teens this weekend, but we will rise to 30° F on Monday. I don’t mind the cold weather as long as there isn’t much wind. However, we are expecting mild winds over the next few days that will lower what the temperatures actually feels like, so those lows will feel more like -6° F, -11° F (the high tomorrow which is 10° F but will feel like -1° F), -8° F, -6° F. I don’t mind the cold as long as I don’t have to be out in it for long. I’d rather live in a climate where the temperature are below freezing than to live in a climate with over 100° F with feel like temperatures well above that. Where I grew up in the South, it was humidity that we dreaded, not the wind. Down there, the wind provided some relief.
I’m just glad that I don’t have to go anywhere until Monday. I can stay warm and cuddle up with Isabella, who will alway find somewhere warm to be. Have a great weekend, everyone! Hopefully, you can stay warm and cozy.
Short Day?
Yesterday felt much longer than it should have. Partly because I was art museum later than I expected, and I did not get home until well after my usual bedtime. Was just a very tiring day. However, because I have some comp time to take for the extra hours I worked last night, I plan to try and make today a short day. I have classes to teach this morning, but as long as my coworker doesn’t have any appointments this afternoon and will be at the museum, I’ll leave after my second class. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’m able to leave early today. My body needs more rest.
Long Day
I’ll be going in late to work this morning, not because I have something else to do before work but because I’ll be at the museum tonight for an event. I would go in at noon, because I’ll be there until at least 9 pm tonight, except I have a class this morning at 10 am. The class was scheduled before I knew I’d be working so late. With that being said, I’m actually not complaining. I volunteered for this evening knowing I had the morning class. Tonight’s event is to honor a man whose funeral I was supposed to attend last Friday, but because of having Covid, I was not able to attend, so I volunteered for the event tonight. I feel that this will be my way of showing respect to the family, who did ask about me at the funeral and were worried that I had Covid. Sometimes, we have to do what we have to do, and that means today will be a 12 hour day.
Phragmites
Phragmites
By Kyle Carrero Lopez
I’ve crashed a party with an infinity pool and several nude men:
a Fire Island home at the back of a walkway long enough to
outlast a pop song’s bridge and some chorus, flanked by
phragmites on either side, tall and same-faced, so all
but reed bulk hides out from the exterior. Myself
included, close to everyone here has a body of
one approximate build. What would it say if I
stay? Comfort’s not so comfy here, but I stay
and try to have a good time: periodic beach
guest, mainly through favors from men
whose wealth eclipses mine and most
of humankind. I know firsthand why
queers come to this place, obliterate
coherence, take, go, take, till
we’ve consumed enough
to leave.
Someone riding the stiffest
substance cocktail he can muster
GROANS he’s got to pee and can’t,
his functions stalled in the twist and now.
What he can still swing is a smile. Excess
soaks the sundecks and each redwood inch
of the mini villa with a sweet-hot stickiness.
There’s much more to take in, with nowhere to go.
About this Poem
“Cherry Grove and the Fire Island Pines—historic, adjoining gay communities on Fire Island—are beautiful, easy to reach from New York City, a blast if you’re with trusted friends, and a hotbed of race and class conflict. The ferries stop operating overnight, so you’re stuck once the last one leaves. One time, while discussing rental price-gouging in the Pines and suggesting that the safety Fire Island offers queer people should be accessible to all income levels, a gay man told me, ‘It’s Long Island, not insulin.’ I’m interested in what we willingly permit for the sake of our own enjoyment.” —Kyle Carrero Lopez
About the Poet
Kyle Carrero Lopez is the author of MUSCLE MEMORY ([PANK] Books, 2022), winner of the 2020 [PANK] Books Contest. He co-founded LEGACY, a Brooklyn-based production collective by and for Black queer artists. Lopez is a 2022 Tin House Scholar.
Back to the Grind
I am dreading today. I am returning to work in person for the first time in three weeks. I love my job, but I’ve gotten used to taking naps when I want to, and I have a feeling I’m going to miss that today. I only got about five hours of sleep last night. I wasn’t able to fall asleep until after midnight, and I had to get up at 5:30 am to feed Isabella, make my own breakfast, and get ready for work. Even though I’m drinking a strong cup of tea as I type this, I’m still not fully awake. I hope taking a shower will help wake me up because it’s going to be a long day of meetings and catching up. In other words, it’s going to be a very busy day.
Authors
Recent Comments
noisilycool3bc985058… on Pic of the Day Joe on Pic of the Day noisilycool3bc985058… on Pic of the Day iameverywhere1 on Pic of the Day noisilycool3bc985058… on Pic of the Day Top Posts & Pages
Amazon Associate
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. So, if you click on a link that takes you to Amazon.com, I may earn a commission.
Trust me, it isn’t much, but every little bit helps.
Joe
The Closet Professor 