Welcome to this our Fall/Winter issue. In this issue we feature the work of three visual artists Alden Cole, Eva Wô and Gen Wei, as well as three poems, two poems by David A. Estringel and one by Gen Wei. Susan DiPronio, contributes a short piece with a slight nod to horror and the sexy, supernatural. In this issue we also would like to honor the late Walt Cessna by reposting some his work and photography from our 2016 issue. The issue was taken down by the website after one year, citing our breach of their obscenity clause, despite the fact that the issue featured both art work, writing and photography by some very talented artists among them Walt’s work. Walt left us way too early, but his enthusiasm for Wicked Gay Ways and his support of our early efforts will always be appreciated. His writing like his photography was always cutting edge, incisive and beautiful. He is sorely missed I know by his many friends and family. Thanks Walt for everything, and may you rest in power.

We are also featuring some of the visual work from our first issue as the content no longer exists on the web.

Lesbian Vampires

…………... erotica, bloodplay, kink

We are enamored with Wickedness. Nothing is hotter than a queer vampire …

I admit quite a few of my lovers have sucked the life from me, yet I confess that I still crave their heat against my neck, lips traveling down my shoulders, their teeth tickling across the tips of my nipples and….. The anticipation is everything…..

So, In this, the season of darkness which brings out the sex monster in us all --- as we dream of a warm orifice to crawl inside, I searched to find the origin of our obsessive desire or if indeed, it is intuitive in all of us.

Where did these queer blood suckers come from and why is it so incredibly erotic, why do some of us crave BDSM, Edgeplay, experiences with a furious driven vampire, the roughest of sex. and we get wet reading their stories. the thought of a trickle of our blood off their teeth dropping slowly upon our chest drives us mad… as they tear into us, teeth piercing our skin. Sticky sweet spiraling between our breasts, pooling on our belly….. Hematolagnia... blood play fetish.

Although Coleridge’s beautiful Vampire poem “Christabel” written in 1800 preceded it, “Carmilla” was the first lesbian vampire story. Written by Joseph Sheridan La Fanu in 1872 following Byron’s 1819 story on vampires and expanding upon it by adding lesbian desire. In a way, typical of some lesbians, Carmilla moves in with Laura, her crush, feigning need of a place to recuperate from a carriage accident outside Laura’s house. She floats through walls, refuses to discuss her past or future, hence never sharing or communicating. She disappears for days at a time, “ghosting” and then returns jumping into bed with the infatuated Laura who is mesmerized by Carmilla. Carmilla, she is the shape of us all. Eternally young, yet an ancient soul, obsessive lover, she sucks the blood out of the women she loves most, leaving them to fade away and then moves on.

Monsters we are at the heart sickened by our obsessive love allowing Demons to thwart our attempts at freedom and we let them…. Because mere moments of fulfilled desire are worth death and madness… Vampire stories make us touch ourselves….Susan DiPronio.

Further suggested readings :

The Gilda stories by Jewell Gomez - 1991 - Afrofuturistic, begins in 1850 and ends in 2050, follows a black, lesbian vampire. Gilda is a young girl when she escapes slavery and is changed into a vampire as a young adult

The Hunger, Whitely Streiber, 1981, about a very hot vampire; rich Miriam.

Poetry

“Cajeta (Gimme Some Sweet!)” (originally published at Cajun Mutt Press– September 2019)

“Gimme some sweet!”

we scream

blessed by your MAD words

BAD words

GLAD words

SAD

letting them scorch palates

y quemar nuestros labios

like Holy Wafers

in the Devil’s mouth.

Give us a taste

of life

your loco—

salty and caramel-kissed—

with every candy-flip of the page

forming crystalizations

of lithium-pink

opiate rock (candy)

on dripping tips of lenguas

(so ready)

that hunger for the taste

of sweet poets’ milk

melting rains of cajeta

upon wanting chins and souls

under hot breaths of your WICKED verse.

“Gimme some sweet!”

gritamos

longing for a fix—

ecstatic

spasmatic

orgasms—

of your word-sugar

(tus palabras dulces)

their velvet, fatal stabs

to the heart

(mi corazón)

and the backs of throats

(releasing bad blood and MAD words)

like glistening Astro Pops

sharpened and honed

by the spit and rolling tongues

of PrOphETS—

their anointing mouths

and bleeding pens

working their brujería—

confectionate necromancies—

upon lifeless eardrums

y animas

that languished bitterly

in reductive states

of silent subtraction.

C’mon…

Gimme some sweet!

(Some candied teats to suckle)

Gimme some sweet!

(Sticky trickles of sanctified honey-nectar)

Gimme some sweet!

(El fuego…la alma en mi sangre)

Gimme some sweet!

(Good, proper skull-fucks that inject your Truths)

Gimme some sweet!

(A case of “the sugars” that never felt so good)

Ándale! Dame tu dulce

y no me dejaís aquí estropeado!

(Don’t leave me here CRASHING)

David A. Estringel

“little deaths” (originally published at Cajun Mutt Press– June 2019)

We implode—

explode—

in raptures

of liquid light

that set the skin

to sizzle on the spit

like slow-cooked meat,

pulled apart

in greedy clutches,

peeling

skin from skin,

limb from limb,

sinew from bone

until all is gone,

fallen away

in shreds

and trickles.

Tongues prodding,

hungrily,

for the taste of coppery bliss

of chewed lips,

these beautiful bodies—

diminished

heartbeats and exhales

of viscera and vasculature

with eyelids, aflutter—

fade

into black, into white—

dick-teasing,

mind-fucking

strobes of abstract consciousness.

Hand-in-hand,

together,

we die

little deaths,

again…

and again—

every morning, a resurrection.

BIO:

David Estringel is a writer, poet, and author, as well as Poetry Editor at Fishbowl Press and Fiction Editor at Red Fez. His work has been accepted and/or published at Terror House Magazine, 50 Haikus, Setu, The Elixir, Soft Cartel, Harbinger Asylum, Former People Journal, Cephalopress, Merak Magazine, Printed Words, Digging through the Fat, Haiku Journal, Foxhole Magazine, The Basil O’Flaherty, Three Line Poetry, Agony Opera, Alien Buddha Press, Synchronized Chaos, The @baffled Haiku Daily, The Blue Nib, Fishbowl Press, CultureCult Magazine, Horror Sleaze Trash and more. David first feature-length collection of poetry and prose Indelible Fingerprints (Alien Buddha Press) was published in April 2019.

Works by Eva Wô

Eva Wǒ (she/they) is a mixed Chinese-American/white queer born 1992 in New Mexico and based in Philadelphia since 2010. She uses collaborative portrait photography, digital collage, and moving images to cast spells of queer liberation somewhere between fantasy and futurism. She also produces queer film and art-centered events. Her work creates visibility for marginalized identities, while affirming infinite self-determination and self-love for those she works with, represents, and shares community with. Her work has been exhibited and screened nationally and internationally, from Vox Populi to the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival. Currently she is co-organizing the annual traveling Hot Bits Festival, Philly’s only sex-positive film and arts festival. She is also a recipient of the Leeway Transformation Award, CFEVA Fellowship, and Elsewhere Exchange Fellowship. More at evawo.com.

Alden Cole Bio

Alden Cole, was born on a farm in Maine in 1944, and knew from an early age what he wanted to do sexually and with whom. Coming to terms with his sexuality was difficult, as he had been raised in a very fundamental religious family. He attended the Rhode Island School of Design with a major in Apparel Design, and came out soon after graduation. He has lived and worked in NYC, Portsmouth, NH and for the last 30 years in Philadelphia.

Alden is a mixed-media artist working in painting, drawing, glass, wood, and electricity. He is a member of the Dumpster Divers of Philadelphia, a group of artists interested in interrupting the waste stream. These artists work with found materials, repurposing them and creating out of the waste of others, objects d’art. Trash and the detritus of humanity is his medium of choice. A recurring theme in Alden’s many paintings and drawings is a celebration of homoeroticism as viewed from classical antiquity to the present.

Gen-Wei Tom, artist name Gen-Wei, is a Philadelphia-based photographer and visual artist who is interested in exploring hyper-masculinity in queer culture and examining the intersection of race and queerness. Gen-Wei was born in Allentown, PA and attended Temple University and studied journalism with a concentration in photojournalism.

After graduating, he freelanced as a photographer for the City of Philadelphia. His work has been featured in several publications, and his work has been exhibited at many galleries including Goldilocks, Stella Elkins, Tyler School of Art, William Way Center, City of Philadelphia City Hall, and the Flix and Brick Lane Galleries in London, U.K.

”Part-time Faggot”

You go down on me harder than the waves crashing on the sand.
Praise Neruda.

When you speak to me with a cigarette hanging from your mouth,
the smoke burns my eyes.

Your head shaved and black polish chipping from your pinky nail,
an X written on the back of your hand in sharpie.

You do to me what springtime does to a chrysalis.
Under the belt, Puccini style.

And, just like a moth stuck in wet sand,
I have been perverted by loss.

I find myself worshiping you like a dog while you stand there on my futon,
the room heavy with the scent of leather cleaner.

And, all that there is left of us are spoons on the nightstand
and the breeze of dawn chasing fresh air.

Gen Wei

Gen Wei