Queer writer, poet and bookseller Erica Gillingham offers her thoughts in this wonderful poem.
I’m going to wear a face mask, so
I’ll make it ice cream patterned.
I’ll make it as bold as can be,
one that screams ‘lick’ & ‘fun’.
I’ll make it blue & yellow
& orange & pink—
all the flavours of bubble gum
ice cream, the kind I ordered as a kid
at Lorde’s Ice Cream Parlour
before I ate my mom’s instead.
I’ll make it hot like all the summer
afternoons spent by the river
at our favourite swimming hole,
before piling into the back of the truck
to stop by Dotty’s for a sweet treat after,
the whole family taking up the picnic table.
I’ll make it bright & sparkling, like all
times we marked out celebrations:
my brother’s graduation,
the news of an engagement,
a casual stroll with my missus
through Soho on a Tuesday evening,
before our world turned like an upside-down
ice cream cone & love alone could not protect us.