A Few Days Before Marriage Equality, the Boils Appeared

By way of a hookup

app

called

SCRUFF

[ . . . like Grindr or BoyAhoy

GROWLr

or

Jack’d

&

Dandy . . . 

[T]he many

places

gay men

log on

2 meet causal

sex

partners

& where

I

once

saw my former

Bible Camp

leader]

a cute man

messaged me:

It’s BIG

a big

day

4 us.

The Supreme Court decided to legalize gay marriage

[the union of 2 people

by law . . .

though lots of LGBT people

had lived together

and decided their own

FAMILY life

[w]ithout it.]

This man

[whose handle

was some

thing close to

JoeJoe69

69]

& I had already gotten the particulars

out of the WAY—

[Looking?

Status?

What are you

into?

YES.

HIV negative

Oral,

safe sex

ONLY,

misc fetishes,

etc.

I CAN’T WAIT

to have my

tongue

inside you]

but hadn’t yet

met.

After he relayed this historic news

I messaged him back:

Do U have

any

free time

[I never needed

a piece

of paper

& some tax

breaks . . .

Plus, I only had

a small window]

to hang out?

& he answered

SURE

so, I told

him

the TRUTH

abt my

bad

sunburn,

b/c it made me

peel

[made me

self-conscious]

& my skin would shed

all over his bed.

&—in

a few spots—

the burn

had turned into

BIG

puss filled

blisters.

These formed on top of my feet kind of

like what happened to the “blameless”

& “upright” Job when God tested his faith.

To do this,

God

took away

what Job held

close

[his family,

health

and most importantly

his FREEDOM

all the stuff that made

him

pious

& chill.

In the end—

after Job’s property got carried off by raiders or destroyed by natural disasters

after Job’s sores

after Job’s pain, anxiety, torment, confusion, & anger

—Job never faltered

& God blessed him

[I think HE doubled

his everything]

for being so real.

JoeJoe6969

went silent.

[If a guy doesn’t answer

back

it usually

means he’s

found

someone

else for his

tongue to

be inside]

so I started to get

off

on my

own

but, my mom

called so I

stopped

& answered

like a good

SON.

She said: Now that y’all

can get

married,

I expect

you

to settle

down

settle down and give me

grandbabies soon.

I hung up

to get back 2 my business

& though it hurt

like HELL

I popped all my blisters.

Prayed

God if you

hear

me please

delivery me from

the EVIL

days

of expectations

and all the stuff

that comes

with them.