After My Coming Out by Magdalena Šipka

The day after my unintended coming out

I am the cover face of a tabloid

and an American nun

asks me ‘please tell me your stories’

Fourteen days after my horrific coming out

I am headed to the Open Festival

And lost in the Bludník park

Whispers seep through my old friends’ lips

A month after my dark coming out

I snort an enchanted line in London

and for the first time I see

The sky revealed above the clouds

Half a year after my exploited coming out

I re-tell my story for the first time and

see for the last time the face of my journal’s boss

Seven months after my isolating coming out

I love resurrected buildings

with a roof shielding from all the hurt

I sleep in a squat

Eight months after my tragical coming out

I watch a package of pills dissolve

On a balcony, rain instead of death

So I pop antidepressants

A year after my ridiculous coming out

amid tender mountains

I live the same romantic utopia

My arms overflow with golden hypericum

One and half years after my coming out

In the magic of Christmas lights

I kiss my first lesbian lover

And the priest curses me to stay silent forevermore

Twenty months after my coming out

I know I am – quite simply - a human