BOYS FROM THE EXCLUSION ZONE
don't kiss: butterflies
aren’t allowed — just violence,
war against something,
the frail code of manhood strewn
every-which-where with your clothes.
against the hotel window
your pestle hips crush
me into the whispering
pulse — something in me
i need to break, butterflies
raging rabid and ribcaged.
Lenk
is a first-year MFA student, sometimes fire-spinner, all the time writer out for better queer representation. Currently unagented, he writes poetry, a broad range of fiction, and lyric/hybrid, and has received nominations for prizes such as the Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets 2020, and the Walter Dean Myers Award.