Queer love poems, or, how does a fish write a poem about water?

This week, I am writing queer love poems with a handful of other queer writers whom I love and admire in both internet and IRL ways. Margaret Rhee, Tamiko Beyer, Ching-In Chen, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Meg Day, and I have all signed on for a collective challenge, based on something Margaret posted on Facebook about queer love being so good, but so hard. Ain’t it? I must admit to feeling a little overwhelmed by the broadness of “queer love poem,” as I feel that so much of what my brain and heart are chewing on lately is queer love. How does a fish write a poem about water? I might need to give myself a more specific constraint. I am excited and honored to get to read what my fellow poets write, and thankful for the internet for allowing this kind of spontaneous collective project. It’s exactly the kind of “alone-together” community that I like to write in, and that I feel is so important!