we do not talk about charlie by Tramaine Suubi

uncle, here, is the good kind of funny, a gentle one, even

until the virus positively smears him. the only salvation

offered at this time in a burgeoning neocolonial capital

is self-flagellation. a public self-denial, forced swallowing

of the Spirit. he renounces all his lovers, irrespective

of gender & his benders. compares them to the bottle

a palatable sin of the flesh. yes, little else to do but delay

the decay & fit him for a stiff suit from the cheap fashion

district, while his mother thanks Almighty that she will bury 

her son proper. nearing the end, he pens silent elegies for all

the selves he kills for a bought dignity. yet, in a time when

deficient immunities beget acquired syndromes, beget regret

he returns to his gentleness that still shrouds him in name

as my father waters his perennials on the anniversaries

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TRAMAINE SUUBI is a multilingual writer, editor, and teacher from Kampala, and a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. They have also published creative writing in over fifteen literary anthologies, magazines, journals, and reviews. They are the author of phases and stages, which are published by Amistad (an imprint of Harpercollins). Tramaine works towards the total liberation of all oppressed people by any means necessary.

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