if you had truly tasted the rainbow, you would know it tastes like the drive to Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the fall

MACK ROGERS

i am telling you, you have not witnessed beauty like the trees
on 441 with nearly 18,000 acres ravaged by the wildfire
as a backdrop.

it’s like meeting a white boy on Grindr and driving to
Cherokee from Morristown, TN to meet him
every weekend.

the beauty of being introduced to other queers
with a fuck-me smile and watching
Drag Race for the first time.

it’s driving to Cherokee to drive to Dollywood to walk around
then back to Cherokee and back home and we’re
not even fucking anymore.

it’s a beautiful day here and i am spending it
with a boy unafraid of uttering hate who loves me
because i am used to the scarcity.

it’s the spark that’s beautiful, of course,
the thrill of love and the subsequent
ghosting of it.

_________________

this is the world on fire and
it tastes just like Dollywood
Coca-Cola.

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MACK ROGERS is a queer Black writer whose work appears or is forthcoming in Foglifter, The Offing, Glass, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. Mack is a poetry reader for Split Lip Magazine, staff critic for Pencilhouse, and poetry editor for Zero Readers Magazine. His debut chapbook Hindsight is forthcoming with Diode Editions in spring 2025. Mack has been nominated for Best of the Net, Best New Poets, and the Pushcart Prize. He lives with his partner and their three cats in Raleigh, NC.