THANKSGIVING MEAL by H. Melt

THANKSGIVING MEAL

 

i arrive at my parents house

for my first thanksgiving

with my girlfriend

 

in the oven is the turkey

on the stove are green beans

in the fish shaped pan jello molds

 

i am first to fill my plate

and sit at the long table

where we pretend

to be one

 

my sisters husband

squeezes next to me

our elbows and knees

kissing

 

he calls me

by the wrong

name

 

as if eight months ago

h. melt didn’t appear

on my place card

at his wedding

 

as if i am not

part of the family

that loves him now.

 

 

H. Melt is the author of The Plural, The Blurring (Red Beard Press, 2015). Their work proudly documents Chicago’s queer and trans communities. Their writing has been published by Lambda Literary, The Offing, and Them, the first trans literary journal in the United States. They work at the Poetry Foundation and Chicago’s feminist bookstore.