Wicked Gay Ways

Wicked Gay Ways Spring 2020 Issue

Editors note

Dear reader: As we face a global pandemic with the spread of COVID-19, we hope that you are staying safe and observing social distancing. For us as editors of a journal devoted to the celebration of queer erotica, social distancing disrupts our very human need for touch and connection. It is at times like these that we turn to art and literature as a way to help us make sense of the world and our place in it. We hope this issue helps is some small way to distract you and to connect you virtually to others.

Rites of Spring

Welcome to the spring issue of Wicked Gay Ways where we celebrate the rites of spring, a season marking new beginnings. We are delighted to feature poetry from Raymond Luczak, Cassendre Xavier, and art work by Tyler Alpern, Tee Goerlach and the Colombian artist Grecorroman.

Fragments by Sapho.

  and your enticing laughter

that indeed has stirred up the heart in my breast.

   For whenever I look at you even briefly

   I can no longer say a single thing,

  but my tongue is frozen in silence;

instantly a delicate flame runs beneath my skin;

 with my eyes I see nothing;

 my ears make a whirring noise.

A cold sweat covers me,

trembling seizes my body,

and I am greener than grass.

Lacking but little of death do I seem.

Thank you, my dear

You came, and you did

well to come: I needed

you. You have made

Love blaze up in

my breast - bless you !

Bless you as often

as the hours have

been endless to me

while you were gone.

Sapho, (Translation by Mary Barnard )

Tee Goerlach

Tee is a performer, poet, painter, printer and mixed-media artist. He is always creating in one way or another no matter the medium; watercolor, Pen, Marker, Ink. Title of works from left to right, # 1 Float, # 2, Peace, # 3 Still, # 4, Rest, # 5, Removed, # 6, Fly.

Hair Like Mine

I know that I disgust you

You say you adore me

But I see the women you watch

And they don’t look like me

Flat waxen hair waxy flaxen hair flat

Flat flat as their bellies flat

There’s nothing flat on me

Small breasts

You love small breasts

And not my large and pendulous ones

Ready to feed a nation

An army

Both

You say you adore me

But you show little desire

Some affection but no desire

For large breasts

Round bellies

And hair like mine

================

Cassendre Xavier, “renaissance negresse” is a $15,000 Leeway Transformation Award-Winning musician, writer, actress, visual artist, and community cultural arts organizer. Founder & Executive Director of the Black Women’s Arts Festival (Est. 2003) and the Women's Writing & Spoken Word Series (Est. 2002).

Official website: http://cassEndrExavier.wordpress.com

Tyler Alpern

Tyler Alpern is an artist, painter and social instigator holed up in a log cabin in Colorado. His artwork reveals that he is not frightened by the unusual, and embraces unconventional beauty. His formal education took Alpern from Los Angeles to Rome, and back to Colorado to earn an MFA with life altering experiences in between. Due to a comic twist of fate, his likeness anonymously appeared wrapped around the front and back covers of James Spada's book "The Romantic Male Nude." The irony of that was not lost on a few former lovers and mercifully, the image lays and lies hidden under the paper jacket. More honorably, Alpern’s portrait of Yma Sumac was featured on the cover of her biography. His works and collaborations have been included in exhibitions at the Kinsey Institute and are in their permanent collection. Gender, beauty, movement and form are some of the subjects Alpern has explored in his many collaborations with other artists. As an amateur historian and pop culture archaeologist, Alpern’s original research has revealed fascinating stories that are documented and retold in both his own paintings and forays into written media. You can find more of his work at http://www.tyleralpern.com. Title of works from left to right. # 1, Lake Boy, # 2, Lido, # 3, Portrait of Theo, and # 4, Rough trade.

DIONYSUS

Come dunk my soul

in crimson joy

until my tongue is

tippy toe tripsy,

floating asleep

in this mad world

of mortals with morals

clearly not of my taste

yet awakening

in this vat of wine

where the blood of

my dreaming swells:

the sweetest sighs

between my thighs.

Raymond Luczak

COMMUNAL

In a pool of hot springs, a circle of men,

naked as I am, guide me to float.

Their gentle octopus hands pull me 

apart, holding my hands, legs, ass,

as the fur on my chest undulate,

my cock swaying atop my balls.

The silence of water swirls in my ears.

A hawk knifes across the great Oregon sky

Great spirits are watching everywhere.

Raymond Luczak

IN THE GREENHOUSE

Caught in glass, you nevertheless broke free

without second thought. I quaked like tulips.

Our nakedness fertilized everything.

Each kiss was Miracle-Gro on steroids.

Peat, dense with sprinkled water, oozed right back

with petals dripping colors like wet paint.

Our arms and legs snaked like garden hoses,

a constant threat to faucets under strain.

Awakening to sunrises, we yawned.

Our seeds planted the night before had grown.

The gridiron glass roof magnified us

bees pollinating each other’s nectar.

We scattered dust-covered plant catalogs

into the shadows. We bloomed.

Raymond Luczak

Grecorroman

Grecorroman is a Colombian illustrator/graphic artist who uses anonymity as part of his identity. Although he trained as an artist he credits his self taught approach to the use of books, magazines and photocopies which he used to teach himself illustration.

He uses Grecorroman as a way to evoke and pay homage to greek and roman art and philosophy especially that moment in history where homosexuality was established as a normal part of life. He uses the artistic influences developed during the classical period, the neoclassical period and the renaissance as inspiration. The neoclassical period being specifically an important source of inspiration in its rendering of the human body. He does not title his drawings preferring they be freely interpreted by the viewer and works primarily in charcoal and colored pencils. For more of his work you can follow him on instagram @GRECORROMAN.