beautiful gender-normative courting
Chad Lutz
It’s been two weeks
It’s been a month
It’s been three days
& yet they say
I love you
they throw
things around
& say I love you
they leave
you on the front
step with no keys
& a nip to the air
& say I love you
they prance
around the
apartment
shouting
I love you
I love you
when are we
going to have sex?
the answer is clouded
like winter in Cleveland
a knot forms in my chest
I love you
I say
but I’m just
not into sex
then you
must be
cheating on
me they reply
& start the car
in the drive
ready to run
me over
Chad W. Lutz is a speedy, non-binary writer born in Akron, Ohio, in 1986 and raised in the neighboring suburb of Stow. They graduated from Kent State University with their BA in English in 2008 and from Mills College in Oakland, California, with their MFA in Creative Writing in 2018. Their first book, For the Time Being (2020), is currently available through J. New Books.