Shadow Hunters of 1990

by Shaine Melrose

On the streets when I walk
                         two shadows fall
                                    my androgynous soul
                sprouts ambivalence from the core 
gender bender for sure
                                  wherever I walk
two shadows on the floor

I hang out with junkies
               drag queens and dykes
                             hookers and outcasts
                                              punks in the night.

I never stay long, always on the run
                                   from searing pain, old scars,
                                             words jangled in the thrum.
Looking for answers, lost in the wind
                        searching for love, no one will give.

            On the streets when I walk,

                              hey poofter, punk, you dyke!
                                                        we’ll catch you, we’ll cut you,
                                           nail your soul to a wall...
into a dark pool of blood
                      my two shadows fall –  
  
but I rise and I swipe            my light from their hands
                        I yell         I run                          and I roar.
             I am what I am
                          Fuck you all.

Shaine Melrose is a queer poet and gardener living with chronic illness, on Kaurna country. Recently her debut short manuscript, shooting words from my soul, won a place in FSP’s anthology ‘New Poets #23’. She has been shortlisted for the 2022 Judith Wright Poetry prize and published in APJ12.1, Saltbush Review, Bramble and Cordite.