Reading Queer in the GTA (1)

TANIS FRANCO

I Regret My Actions Up Until Now

I rescheduled too many times but I actually
do like you. This night is reminding me
that I want to get over my avoidant
nature. Something about those steely clouds
outside, the fact that my roses have persistent
pests, and the man who shot people just
having an ordinary dinner on the Danforth
last night. We were going to have dinner
this week. Today, my perfect bedroom rug
was delivered and it stood outside in the rain
until I came home at six. When I moved here,
my mother said she hoped I would find a “partner”
now, as she thinks there are only twenty
queer people in Toronto. Mother, I said,
I am not sure what I can do.

Tanis Franco is a genderqueer writer living in Toronto. Their first poetry book is called Quarry (University of Calgary Press, 2018) — Twitter: @tanis_franco

I Regret My Actions Up Until Now
appears in CAROUSEL 42 buy it here

CAROUSEL 42 — cover by Nicholas Di Genova