Art Overhead with Downtown Van and Vancouver Poetry House

For Vancouver Pride I was given the opportunity to share a excerpt from a poem for a public art installation. Below is the poem in its entirety. Thank you so much to Downtown Van and Vancouver Poetry House for the opportunity to share this work. Follow the link below for more information!

Pride

this is a poem for the queers who don’t feel seen:

today when reaching for a question mark

the hairline fracture in my phone screen replaced it with a pride flag

as if to say, no question

this degree of certainty came as a surprise to me

there are parts I have kept under scrutiny

for so long the edges blurred and bled out

until no one sure if it was real or a trick of the light

just the sun in their eyes

this poem is for those who hide a part of who they are

whose hearts are divided into should and shouldn’t

into would and wouldn’t

into uncertainty instilled

by a parent/ hometown/ hunger/ god

that undermines their freedom to a basic expression of love

this poem is for those who have refused to do anything

frozen on a knife’s edge

all tiptoe tightrope walker

toeing the line of between fearful and fulfilled

between vilified and validated

suspended somewhere over a dilapidated sense of “supposed to”

and a great big fear of hurting someone

I have been tentative for so long

there were so many questions I didn’t have answers to

this is for those who don’t have the answers

so convince themselves that they are not real

that part of them is something they dreamed up

that their love is figment is filament

has never really burned bright enough to see

the thing is I don’t need anyone

to red tape rubber stamp seal of approval my sexuality

this is click boom certainty

so try me

this potential for love expands infinitely

so I dare you to keep trolling this love story

this is for those who get flagged as excuse-making

tagged as experimenting

tell me how trendy I’m being

that I just haven’t met the right guy

or I’m scared closet dyke

just can’t make up my mind

I can take it

I have lived safely under curlicue canopy of question mark for so long

protected by my own lack of proof

this is for the ones like me who you ask for receipts from

love-

I see you.

I see that flicker in your chest

I recognize it

I have tasted that fear

that fear that this part of you unrealized and white-knuckled

may never have been true in the first place

that maybe you’ll try and wake up having hurt somebody

you’ve been tried on for size so many times before

-why would you risk doing that to another human being?

this is scary

this whole being thing.

this being whole thing.

but you

You are real-

not puppet or plaything

not hallucinating anything

and no matter how they try

they cannot take your truth from you

truth as tangible as fingertips

not a question mark a pride flag

Love, hold my hand

have the audacity to stand with me

here in the streets screaming look at me

look at us

here we are

this is real

yowl it loudly

or hold it quietly

it is ours- we do not owe them anything

but they will know without question-

we are here and filled with pride.

Learn more

Something Greener

Sarah Valiquette July 30, 2024

something greener came out in March of 2024 and is available for purchase through the website. All proceeds go to relief efforts in Palestine. Cover art by Zola Kell.