Politicize My Death

by Pat Haney

---

Last week, in a drunken
flurry, I told my friends,
I don’t care how I die.
Politicize the fuck 
out of my death. 

The statement was naturally 
met with laughter and 
questions. I always 
have an answer. 

The lesbianism, the brownness
the furrowed eyebrows
and bad attitude and 
deviated septum. 

Spread my ashes across the
White House lawn! I gurgled 
through more three-dollar 
wine. But only some of them. 
Leave the rest at my 
grandfather’s grave. 

The son of North Carolinian 
sharecroppers buried next 
to racist Catholics in his 
last wife’s family plot. 
Leave my ashes with 
a bundle of lavender.
Kiss his head stone
and say a prayer.

---

Pat Haney is a young poet originally from East Lansing, Michigan. Much of their work is inspired by the exploration of their queer and biracial identities growing up in the Midwest. Now, Patricia is a senior at DePaul University double majoring in Writing & Rhetoric and Creative Writing. Over the past several years, they've had work appear in Chicago-based magazines such as Injustice Watch, 14 East, Eclectica Magazine, and Crook & Folly.