You are all Invited

Someone’s having a party 
and there will be cake 
(yellow cake with pink frosting) 
and there will be pink drinks 
served with tiny pink umbrellas
and there will be music and movement 
and mad, mad, mad dancing
each thrumming pulse bent 
to strike the floor 
that is ballroom, backroom
courtyard, club; that is back porch, 
back alley, bowling alley, disco
someone’s having a party 
and we will write our names 
in sparks, christen ourselves
still-very-much-alive
no room for disapproval 
(there will be cake!) 
no room for cruelty 
(there will be pink drinks!) 
and pink swans folded 
from pink paper, hung 
from the lemon tree leaning 
in the corner—a place we find ourselves 
before the lights go on. 
Someone’s having a party 
that stretches on as fingers,
hidden places, slanted light 
on unmade beds, as poached eggs 
coffee, slice of last night’s cake 
that spills from open windows 
as fire escape, bougainvillea 
pink Chucks dancing the outlines 
of our faces, intent to take 
the sidewalk home, mouths full 
of this one 
forever day.

EVELYN GILL

Evelyn Gill (she/her or they/them) is a queer gardener, bird-watcher, poet, and psychiatric nurse practitioner who lives in northwest Washington with her spouse and dog. She writes poetry out of need to explore the often-baffling world within and around her. Evelyn’s work is forthcoming in The Indianapolis Review and Vagabond City Literary Journal.