My mom says the year I was born you could order one of everything on the Taco Bell menu for less than $15

By Bleah Patterson

that is to say things started going downhill after that, that is to say it was the beginning of the end. My mom says that she doesn’t “mind gay people” but that she’s just glad none of her kids are gay. And I’m responding to her text and your text at the same time and My mom says that she’s just glad we’re “normal, you know what I mean?” and my sisters say yes and I don’t respond because I’m telling you how much I can’t wait to see you again kiss your pomegranate chapstick lips hold your hand like the ship is sinking and we’re going down together down together because everything has been going downhill since I was born, just ask My mom.

Bleah (blay-uh) Patterson, she/her, is a queer, southern poet born and raised in Texas. Much of her work explores the contention between identity and home and has been featured or is forthcoming in various journals including Electric Literature, Pinch, Write or Die, Phoebe Literature, and Taco Bell Quarterly.

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