Leigh Doughty

Leigh Doughty is a writer and language tutor from the UK. Their previously published work can be found in Arteidolia, The Beatnik Cowboy, and A Thin Slice of Anxiety. When they are not teaching or writing, they can be found idling the afternoon away with a good book and a comfortable chair.

Easy read of the poem in the images above:

Knees scream at you

getting old seems

underrated

the wrinkles deepen

often

the knees scream at you

on stairs

the hair betrays

you

falling out

strand by strand

but there’s beauty

somehow

in no longer

needing

to be this

or that

to live merely

following

your passions

to have the ones

you love

in your life

no longer competing

simply

just being

Acceptance

it’s dead down there

and i’m expected

to join in with the

horned up men

craving a woman.

and when i don’t

sing the song

that’s sung

they think it’s guys

in my mind.

except now they expect

the flamboyance,

and the extra that they think

must come along

with not wanting to

tress the sheets

with women.

now all expectations

are not met

/disappointing/

i cannot be the virile

guy, or the ostentatious

glittering queer.

just merely the let

down;

who’s bodily cravings

in the things

the body has to say

will not seem to pulse

in the ordinary way.

a new strength is

called upon which

we didn’t know

existed — to own the

things that caused

me shame and make

it bold is to be re-born

again, new and uplifted.