Dressing Down

—to Shirley Q. Liquor, Drag Queen in Blackface

When you’re gay in Dixie,

you’re a clown of a desperate circus.

Sometimes the only way to be like daddy

is to hate like him—

hope your brothers laugh

instead of shoot,

wrap a confederate skirt around your waist.

You traded glamour for nasty tricks—

dethroning your mammy’s image for dollars

that will never cover so much debt,

unraveling years she lost

loving you for a living.