Portrait of a Genderkweer on Fire

After Céline Sciamma
 
Addicted to the sunset after burning
I gather with my cousins and lover and
gowonda
swimming close
pushing jalumm
against the rocks.
 
My lover is in
the high tide of language
she keeps me on my toes
do all kweers feel like
sunset is the safest light
the covering of emerging night.
 
Kweer with a kw      
instead of qu
cos fuck the commonwealth
this sea is a seminal kweer text
the way it soaps around the jungeegerrie and my ankles
I’m teaching her to swim
 
Cos I need my kin to be ready
for the story of the storm 
smoke particles in the atmosphere
makes the sky this colour
sometimes our thighs smudge

with fire, blood and earth.