written by Morgan Lyons. Morgan (she/her) has a passion for writing poems depicting body respect, intersectional feminism and queerness. Her writing and art has been published in Rainbow Library Cork Anthology which was launched at West Cork Literary Festival 2023, Good Day Cork Protest Poetry, and Motley Magazine. She is a member of Rainbow Library Cork workshop where she collaborates with other queer artists, and is currently writing a fantasy novel full of found family. She has a BA in Spanish and Asian Studies from University College Cork, Ireland, and enjoys walking with her dog and hunting down sapphic YA books.
Queer joy
It starts in a lockdown
Locked in a bedroom
An avalanche of books
Queer romance, queer fantasy
Queer characters
Characters like… me?
At first you settle for anything, any gay rep
Then you learn
So much more
More stories, more writers, more characters
It starts with the words
Printed on pages
Written just for you
‘Her girlfriend’
‘Her wife’
‘Her chosen family’
It starts with courage
To walk through the doors of your local queer centre
To realise bravery isn’t a show for other people
But for yourself
Your identity
Your heart
Queer courage is in your hands when you pick up a pen
In your mind when you stop filtering the words
In your eyes when you read your work, every stream of consciousness, every thought
Every feeling you have mapped out with letters and stanzas
Every poem you allow to breathe outside your mind
Every character you allow to run outside of your heart
Queer courage is in your voice, even when it shakes, even when you stumble over your poems, words that feel unfamiliar spoken out loud, words that fit around your lips like a soothing balm
Queer takes its shape
On your mouth, in your fingers, in your notebook and in your artwork
Queer meets you where you are, comes to you in the paperbacks you hunted for in your small town bookshops
Comes to you in fiction, comes to you in friends
Comes to you in small groups, in workshops, in parades you were petrified to attend
Scared of not belonging
Queer is the word which keeps you company, the word which whispers “yes”
Yes, you are enough
Queer joy is yours, individual and collective
Queer joy is sacred, magic, infinite
Queer joy is the reassurance of the
Little rainbow flag
Tucked in a bookshelf
All year round.
Image: Stair by Ethan Golding
Ethan Golding (he/him) is a Graduate of DCU’s MA in Creative Writing. Embracing the space between the stage and the page, he has had work produced by DCU’s drama society, has been featured in The Chapter Catcher is a staff writer for The GOO Dublin.
