Queer Seminarians

by Leland Seese

AIDS is still called GRID.
Queer students, hidden by

coats of mail hammered
out of doctrine and jingle rings

of piety. A few, defiant, fling
off burdens, float heavenward.

Cloistered message spreads —
my wife and I have friends

and even family
known to be…that way.

Shadowed stairwells creak.
Quiet knocks on our apartment door.

In silence, he or she or they come in,
in order to come out.

On our sofa they shudder
like blinking hatchlings,

breathing deepens, a cross
has given way to resurrection.

Donny laughs through tears. Hugs us.
You two are weird. And so am I.

He shares his dream — a musical —
Jonathan and David from the Bible,

lovers. He declares with glee,
It will be heretical!

He leaves seminary for New York.
We never hear from him again.