La Cristianía
by Joe Nasta
Maybe I’d act differently if everything was different:
times, places, the people involved, myself.
Maybe when I wore a skirt to La Cristianía
and dangled my legs over the breakwall
I’d bat my eyelashes, grab each part
of the horseweeds rooting between
the stones & pull. Maybe I should have
more fear but in an earlier version of my
identity I locked eyes with the man
pumping his arm behind the picnic pavilion
and cocked my head, said follow me,
the other side of the park, more abandoned.
The white pelican cruises slowly.
I still appear calm but look back to be sure
I have seen what I have seen.
Joe Nasta is a queer artist and writer based in the Seattle area. Ze is the head curator of Stone Pacific Zine and the author of two self-published books of poetry: "I want you to feel ugly, too" (2021) and "agony: love pomes" (2023).