James W. Gaynor: Stranger Things Have Happened
Photo: Joanna C. Valente
Romantic Evening for One
It’s hard here to tell
under all the feathers and tulle
who’s a swan and who’s a princess
because in this forest
in the confusion
so often they are both
There’s a wizard there’s a swan queen —
there’s always a wizard always a queen —
whose pale flock dances
in military formation while one of them
molts into her human other
then into yet another other
perplexing a prince unaware
he’s half of an interspecies couple
Nothing will end well
still I remain to entertain
hope just this once love might triumph
because in this forest
at least until now
stranger things have happened
These poems originally appeared in our ebook The Queer Body.
James W. Gaynor, author of Everything Becomes a Poem and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice in 61 Haiku, is a poet, artist, editor and writer. He has worked as an editor at Grosset & Dunlap, Cuisine magazine, Scriptwriter News and Forbes Publications. His articles, book reviews and essays have appeared in The New York Observer, OTVmagazine.com, Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine, The Gay and Lesbian Review / Worldwide and The Good Men Project.
Gaynor’s found-object sculpture has been exhibited internationally. He is a member of the Advisory Board of New York’s The Creative Center at University Settlement, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing the creative arts to people with cancer and chronic illnesses.
