Ghazal for Leo's Birth

Lightsaber disco fruit, you sprinkle shards of glitter in every godly direction.

I welcome you home. My joy constellation, my biological sun.

Goliath mane, lion flames, yellow-spaghetti-strapped, red-lipped baby boo.

I breathed you into being. Baked you in my follicles, son.

Sunshine slivers on ocean waves, frothbread footprints feather wet sand.

Testosterone tears on your holey hands, I wait for you to rise. My prodigal sun.

Teeth bared to rip Midwestern laminate floorboards. Sweet Home Depot Jungle King.

I dreamt of you behind bars of Georgia O'Keeffe prisons, my conjugal son.

Unripe mangoes sing to you from the crest of ancient trees. I sit you on your shoulders

to meet your maker. Yellow on yellow, holy forehead kisses by a tropical sun.

Sequin-sutured vinegar scabs. Collage of wet dreams and surgical symphonies.

Leo spun from gold threads, made on purpose, I see you. My radical son.

~~

Leo Aquino (they/he) is a transgender poet, author, screenwriter and filmmaker living in unceded Tongva territory (aka Los Angeles).