Our Lady of the Gaga, Gives Us Our Excesses

by Tamiko Beyer

sometimes, waking

to the blank eyes

of the penthouse

windows I miss

you, Lady Starlight

everyone starts small

before they go big

you knew that darling –

starlight’s a faint glow

when the city pulses below

::            ::

my superfans

you little monsters:

who wants to fuck a boy

who wants to fuck a girl

now you see

me now I don’t

::            ::

this door the excess

I adore – once

I couldn’t pay

my LES rent

but I looked

fucking gorgeous –

Versace, Dior,

the real thing

and now what? now

what? bubbles! feathers!

metal collars!

appliqué, sequins, appliqué!

let your tongue

taste every

part of me,

monsters,

this purple satin art-

deco body suit

red lace crown

latex mini hoop

is for you, look

lovelies – lick it,

the waning the waxing

cover your eyes

all you pretty boys and girls

I am the pretty boy

the pretty pretty girl

the hot top

hot comet top

take my body take my body take my eyes

::            ::

Christina said: I didn’t know if it

was a man or a woman

sweetheart,

all that picture proves

is I know how to pack

and the whole world’s

invested in the binary

of shudder fuck shudder

::            ::

the awkward diva’s

born knowing the trick

is finding pleasure

when I explode

all the mirrors flash

::            ::

come write me into relevance

come adore me into stardom

lick and lick and lick

little monsters – you want it –

my cunt-fist-fame

darling god and darling gays

all the world shudders

my body my body my body my fist

my fame a fist my dick a fist

::            ::

dear star,

you cannot pin

the curled script

across my forearm

because I have been

more lonely than you

will ever know – cover

your eyes

::            ::

bring me my heels

my orbiting rings

my center all my

little monsters

drool into my platinum

wig: get to know what wet

feels like: this, your fist-

filled moment: Get out

there’s no other superstar

                         Behind starlight
                         this is the burn, the bend
                         the sunblind

Author Bio:  

Tamiko Beyer’s poetry has appeared in The Sonora Review, Copper Nickel, diode, and elsewhere. She is a recipient of a grant from the Astraea Foundations’ Emerging Lesbian Writers Fund, and a Kundiman Asian American Poetry Fellow. She serves as the poetry editor at Drunken Boat, and is pursuing an M.F.A at Washington University in St. Louis.