GIOVANNI’S ROOM

by H. Melt

est. 1973


is many rooms, many floors, a couple
winding staircases, new & used books
records & clothes, a chandelier with
its namesake book behind glass
a leather section, where I find
a chainmail necklace for ten dollars
a poetry section, where I find myself
Jamila & Raquel, this is for us
the oldest gay bookstore in
the country raises a trans flag
above the street, raises money
for AIDS & who better 
to aid us than our own.

H. Melt is a poet, artist and educator whose work celebrates trans people, history and culture. They are the author of On My Way to Liberation, The Plural, The Blurring, and editor of Subject to Change: Trans Poetry & Conversation. Lambda Literary awarded them the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers. Their next book, There Are Trans People Here, is forthcoming from Haymarket Books in the fall of 2021.

Poetry, Spilled InkHooligan MagazineH. Melt