Photo by Anna Atkins on Unsplash
for the B-52s
Never brave enough as a teen in Normaltown
to “dance in the garden in torn sheets in the rain,”
I managed to Watusi in the confines of my closet,
thanks to lessons from bouffanted Cindy and Kate.
Pumping gas at my dad’s station, I’d catch a high
from the fumes. Trying to hum like the members
of the Deadbeat Club on their caffeine buzz.
Determined to dance “in torn sheets in the rain!”
Was this how they partied in the South—campy
gay guys and their campier girlfriends—I longed
to chew the fat with them for hours. Skinny dip
in their Georgia moonlight after 25¢ beers.
They wore queerness like their torn sheets.
Organic and easy as the rain. Bringing the 60s
into the 80s and making it feel like the future.
Now that future has come. Like they promised.
And I dance in my garden, happily drenched.
Michael Montlack is author of two poetry collections and editor of the Lambda Finalist essay anthology My Diva: 65 Gay Men on the Women Who Inspire Them (University of Wisconsin Press). His work recently appeared in Poetry Daily, Prairie Schooner, The Rumpus, Barrelhouse, december, Cincinnati Review, and phoebe. He lives in NYC, where he teaches Poetry at CUNY City College.