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13th June, 2025

Friday Poem – ‘For the Drag Queen Who Lives in My Building’ by Emily Cotterill

Close up photo of rainbow streamers lying across a pink surface

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘For the Drag Queen Who Lives in My Building’ by Emily Cotterill from her collection Significant Wow.

For the Drag Queen Who Lives in My Building
It’s obvious that I have noticed you – all the extremes of your body, in the smoking shelter you make from our shared doorway, but I don’t talk to anyone. Shame fills my mouth like the padding around a pulled tooth. When I see you, I smile.Then smile again. I am still the same stranger to you, but I know dressing-gown or full drag, that you are a total body of commitment. I see the coffee jar you leave for your fag ends,
hiding my face on the way to communal bins. When I imagine being enough of something, I imagine you. Proud. Hailing yourself a taxi. Knowing the meaning of the word.