Crossley Simmons

Sporty Dyke Pre-Game Ritual

1.

I open my eyes with intention
voice my skin to the cerated light
burn my hesitations, flaky and peelable,
lionize a species of urgency

I queer from the inside out
twisting
shins to tender sweat
ribs to fruited sprint
delts to pulsing alphabets
hamstrings to presence
pecs to unrest

While my mother dreams all my teeth are falling out
I sleep on the cress of my lips
grinding into my bites the language of activity

to dyke
I cement my screams,
weight my offense
in jitters
in anger
in guarded grit

I sit up and enter the day, a dripping solid disruption 

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Crossley Simmons has an M.F.A. in Poetry from Temple University, and squats over 330 pounds. Her essay “be//headed” was awarded the Joseph Beam Prize for an essay or literary work “whose subject matter would be of interest and importance to sexual minorities.” Her manuscript A COMING OF AGE SCOOP NECK TEE: POEMS FOR (UN)DRESSING was a semifinalist for Ahsahta Press's 2016 Sawtooth Poetry Prize, a finalist for Rescue Press's 2016 Black Box Poetry Prize, and a finalist for Kelsey Street Press's 2017 FIRSTS! contest. Crossley is the last name of her Great Grandmother, Baba, who turns 101 this year in Memphis.