Querelle
[After Schroeter]
the man might be nakedhis torso is bending
he is slim and hairy
his hair isn’t bothering me, I’m just noticing
his torso is covered with dark hair
he is muscular
he has the posture of a dancer
he is making moves like he knows how to dance
he is smiling
he has that moustache
that gay moustache
from the 1970s
the women are on stage and the sailors are in love
with each other. one woman is dancing and another woman is holding a sword
in a crouched position. both women are on stage.
do they see each other? the sailors are in love.
they are kissing each other gazing
into the eyes of each other with love. one sailor is the dancer
with the moustache and the hairy torso. the other sailor is less hairy.
but I’m not sure
they are in sailor uniforms, hat and all, and each other’s arms
in the first chairs
in what are representative of the first of many chairs in the first of many rows
before the stage
you can see the woman dancer
she is dancing in the space between their mouths
she is dancing in the space behind their mouths, too
this is a very long scene.
the sailors come together and then, at arm’s length, they part to gaze
they are so happy
it is hard to know if the dancing woman has feelings about love
kathryn l. pringle is the author of fault tree (Omnidawn, 2011), selected by C.D. Wright for Omnidawn's First/Second book award & Lambda Literary Award finalist, RIGHT NEW BIOLOGY (Heretical Texts/Factory School, 2009) & The Stills (Duration Press). Her book, Temper & Felicity are Lovers won the 2013 Besmilr Brigham Award and will be published by Lost Roads Press in 2014. Her work has also been included in the anthologies Conversations at the Wartime Cafe: A Decade of War (WODV Press), I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (Les Figues), and The Sonnets: Rewriting Shakespeare (Nightboat Books). In 2013, she was the very grateful recipient of a gift from the Fund for Poetry.
