i, a lover of men and women,
meandering before a high
altar, safe in the crumbling tower—
orphaned in self-denial,
left with the obvious absurdity
of god himself,
over respectability
and renegade ambitions,
my delusions gave no
comforting superstitions—
Excerpt from “the gay atheistic beloved” by Caseyrenée Lopez with text appropriated from The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice, published in Calamus Journal