At the Biblical Pub of Secret Genders in the Gentrified Section of Oscar Wilde’s London

By Lois Marie Harrod

Salome danced from table to table
asking each patron their preferred pronoun.

For those who replied they,
she served a veil and a beer.

And every beer had a head
and every head was John the Baptist’s.

Crammed like a fist
with locust and honey.

Some said blasphemous
some said sexist, one said disgusting.

As for John, he nipped at his pint
until his cousin appeared

and then he baptized them all
in Jordan’s Gin—

What could I do
but drink it down?

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Lois Marie Harrod’s 18th collection, Spat, was published by Finishing Line Press, 2021, and her chapbook Woman by Blue Lyra, 2020. Dodge poet, life-long educator, and writer, she is published in literary journals and online ezines from American Poetry Review to Zone 3. More info and links to her online work www.loismarieharrod.org.