Unnameable

Speak no evil
don’t say its name, talk in
euphemism or innuendo.

Say things like
playing for both sides, like I’m
some sort of Russian spy.

Or use phrases like
swing both ways, even as I
swing away from you.

But everything you’ve told me…
Like you’ve heard all I have to say. Like you’ve
heard every name I’ve been called.

Sam Moore is a writer of poetry, prose, and drama. His poetry has appeared in the DASH Journal, Harts and Minds, and in a Hawaii Review special issue on queer sexuality. His debut play, Savage, was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August of 2015. Since then he has had three plays performed at the Burton Taylor Studio in Oxford: I Know You (May 2017); Unmade Beds (January 2018); Like a Virgin (May 2018). He is in his final year of study for an Mst in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford.

Header image by Zhe Wang via Unsplash