“Don’t Say Gay” Bill Passes in Florida, by Carey Taylor

The Crucifixion of Saint Wilgefortis, by Hieronymus Bosch (Netherlands) 1497

“Don’t Say Gay” Bill Passes in Florida

Oh Wilgefortis
Liberata
Uncumber

crucified by your father
crucified like Christ
crucified with eyes

looking up 
not down
while men point

and men weep
and no women allowed
to tend you

your disobedience?
a soft beard
a body you called your own

my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me?

Oh Wilgefortis
Liberata
Uncumber

with your arms wing-wide
and wrists tied
we kneel inside your poem

where doves coo
and candles flicker
on the numinous altar of your courage

Carey Taylor

Carey Taylor is the author of The Lure of Impermanence (Cirque Press 2018). She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the 2022 Neahkahnie Mountain Poetry Prize. Her work has been published both in Ireland and the United States and most recently in The Black Spring Press Group Anthology-Before the Cameras Leave Ukraine (London). She holds a Master of Arts degree in School Counseling and currently lives in Portland, Oregon. https://careyleetaylor.com