Fourth of July and Trans on the Brooklyn Side
Smoke tails of fireworks trail and the little boy
next to me muses on the origin of everything.
He wonders aloud if the fire booms live in the river
they're shot from or in the clouds they light up.
And that, I think, is the best question I've ever heard.
Origin is cumulous. Origin is Hudson River murky.
The boy’s father gives everything to god and god
gives back. He says to his son, God is raining
glitter from his palms. He says Jesus is a jellyfish
that flies; he lights up like your new shoes.
And, really, what is faith if not
imaginative? Religion if not vibrant?
This Father, this Son, this Holy Ghost of fire
working through the sky, they compel me.
So when the boy asks me what I am,
I understand the question and answer,
glitter glue, pipe cleaner, red white and blue
rocket pop, a jellyfish under blacklight.
The boy looks into me.
He gives me to God.
by Kayleb Rae Candrilli
next to me muses on the origin of everything.
He wonders aloud if the fire booms live in the river
they're shot from or in the clouds they light up.
And that, I think, is the best question I've ever heard.
Origin is cumulous. Origin is Hudson River murky.
The boy’s father gives everything to god and god
gives back. He says to his son, God is raining
glitter from his palms. He says Jesus is a jellyfish
that flies; he lights up like your new shoes.
And, really, what is faith if not
imaginative? Religion if not vibrant?
This Father, this Son, this Holy Ghost of fire
working through the sky, they compel me.
So when the boy asks me what I am,
I understand the question and answer,
glitter glue, pipe cleaner, red white and blue
rocket pop, a jellyfish under blacklight.
The boy looks into me.
He gives me to God.
by Kayleb Rae Candrilli
Kayleb Rae Candrilli is a recipient of a 2019 Whiting Award and is author of Water I Won't Touch (Copper Canyon, 2021), All the Gay Saints (Saturnalia 2020), and What Runs Over (YesYes Books, 2017). What Runs Over won the 2016 Pamet River Prize and was a 2017 Lambda Literary finalist for Transgender Poetry and a finalist for the 2018 American Book Fest's best book award in LGBTQ nonfiction. All the Gay Saints was the winner of the 2018 Saturnalia Book Prize, selected by Natalie Diaz. They are published or forthcoming in POETRY, The American Poetry Review, Academy of American Poets, TriQuarterly, Puerto del Sol, Bettering American Poetry, The Boston Review, and many others.