Patrick Ramsay
Patrick Ramsay is a queer Utah-based poet who was raised in and along the wetlands of the Great Salt Lake. He earned his B.A. in English & Creative Writing at Weber State University, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of Metaphor Literary Journal. He owns Happy Magpie Book & Quill, an independent pay-what-you-can bookshop in Ogden, Utah. His poems focus on land, heart, and community in the West, and they have appeared in West Trade Review, Gwarlingo, The Nomad LitMag, Halophyte Magazine, LQ Magazine, QSaltLake, Sink Hollow, and more. You can find more of Patrick’s work in his debut poetry chapbook, “Butterflies are Rare in Beehives” or on Instagram @writepatrick.
Work Trip
I scroll into another man’s body
and unfurl like a balcony fern.
A meteorologist in LA confirms
two mouths can make a storm
if the tongues are warm and short
on time. He says every body
has a climate. Mine opens like a basin
every time I check in to a hotel
on business. I unzip who I was
on the reservation. Shed
my email signature. Try on
a new name. New kinks. Shower.
Step out wet and new and unknown
to myself in the vanity light. Can’t imagine
how anyone gets any work done
on business trips when the hotel
mirrors and crisp white sheets
paint us all like pornstars. And I’ll admit,
It does feel good to submit
my expenses for the taste of sweet
sweat in a new city, to charge his valet
to my room and tell Accounting
there must’ve been some mistake.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Image by Patrick Gamelkoorn
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
© 2024 Iron Oak Editions
Stay Connected to Our Literary Community. Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Listen:
