Kieron Walquist
Drunk

               The Grove, St. Louis, Missouri 

Platypus to Purple Quarters 
to Bar:PM. Drinks like You’re
My Boy Blue, Golddigger. He 

spoke of a love for touching 
a thigh. Said I will touch you
if he continued. Had no plans

to stop. Got closer + closer
in the booth. Asked again
about my boyfriend—

how we were, now states apart.
Noticed that he was never
around, before, when I was

out. That we weren’t together,
much. I shouldn’t have, but
admitted that I had asked 

my boyfriend. Every 
time. Begged, really. Had 
hoped. Felt disgusted after— 

stumbled home, hunched over 
the toilet. Felt disgusting 
whenever I said

my desires out loud.  
That I had desires. Had 
a body some wanted

to touch, + others no longer.
Have, I mean. I have so much.
Have said too much.

Had hoped. God, I really did.
Feels humiliating now. A head 
in a toilet—as if in a wishing well.

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Image by Cottonbro from Pexels
Kieron Walquist [he/they] is a queer, disabled poet + visual artist from Mid-Missouri. Author of OUR HANDS HOLD VIOLENCE, a 2024 National Poetry Series winner + 2026 Norma Farber First Book Award finalist, + the chapbook LOVE LOCKS, a 2022 Quarterly West Chapbook Contest winner, his other work appears in Northwest Review, Poet Lore, The Rumpus, + elsewhere. He holds an MFA in Poetry from Washington University in St. Louis + is currently a PhD student at the University of Utah.
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