Invisible Woman
“She is survived by her three sons and her partner of thirty years,” the papers said. Sometimes the braver periodicals even named her, this partner . partner? Did they own a bakery together? A curio shop? Partner is too small a word pedestrian business-like. I used to like the word. And what shall we call ourselves? Lover at best is dated Girlfriend dismissive, trivial We are life partners, I would whisper in her ear, family. For this lesbian poet who risked life and art and all to name her love This warrior who did not fear the wrath of publishers or critics or scholars or college administrators To hear it now, and often without a name or gender, evokes the closet Undrape! You are not guilty to me, nor stale, nor discarded* Nor invisible. For ...