Josh Fernandez

Flower Mantis

They surrounded me—a gang of pasty faces and chapped lips

singing, “Faggot, faggot, faggot,” spitting like a quiver of cobras, 

and a fist cocked and split my bottom lip. They kicked and pounded

until the school bell rang and I wheezed through my closed 

throat, “I’m not a faggot.” (I didn’t even know what it meant.) Faggot 

sounded like a dim cave, a secret island in a fantasy book, a place I could hide forever.

At home, I removed my clothes/ ran my fingers across the braille

of welts and bruises/ undressed/ found my mother’s turquoise

gown/ wrapped it around myself/ stayed like that forever. 

Bio: Don't get it twisted: Josh Fernandez is Mexican as fuck.