Pride Month
with a line by Jacques Rancourt
It is June & I read about having grace to forgive those
who would condemn us. It is June & a man reads a poem
where the father becomes a dying stag & the son says there is
something I need to tell you. It was June when I was in bed
past 1:00 a.m. gathering news about the Orlando nightclub
shooting. I fell asleep knowing I would wake to walk
against grief in waves. It is June & I am happy that, at
some point, Tegan & Sara will appear in San Francisco
or Oakland. It is June & I have never prayed to any god.
It was June in the 2000s when my ex-partner ran
the New York City pier dance. We slid through a sea
of men with shaved chests. The songs hardly had words
& the bass shuddered into our bodies. Orgasms of glitter
spilled over the Hudson & New York rocked & roared
back. I stood in the VIP section in a tropical sundress
surrounded by so many barely dressed people double-
kissing my face, saying happy Pride & where is your wife
by Shelley Wong found at The Kenyon Review on June 15, 2026
Invitation: “There is something I need to tell you.…”
Shelley Wong is a Kundiman Fellow and the author of the chapbook Rare Birds (Diode Editions, 2017). Her poems have appeared in Crazyhorse, Gulf Coast, Massachusetts Review, and Sycamore Review, among others. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from MacDowell Colony, Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, I-Park Foundation, and Palm Beach Poetry Festival.
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Enjoy Dennis Kucinich’s wisdom below.
“Mr. Speaker, we make war with such certainty, yet we are befuddled how to create peace. This paradox requires reflection if we are to survive. Making and endorsing war requires a secret love of death, and a fearful desire to embrace annihilation. Creating peace requires compassion, putting ourselves in the other person’s place, and all of their suffering and all of their hopes and to act from our heart’s capacity to love, not fear.”
Dennis Kucinich, at this link by Robert Shetterly
June 1, 2026
For our June Americans Who Tell the Truth feature, we chose Dennis Kucinich because he has spent a lifetime holding onto ideas that many people considered politically inconvenient: peace, public good over private profit, environmental responsibility, and the belief that government should serve ordinary people, not power. Whether people agreed with him o…
So much here that resonates with me and my lived experiences of Pride Month... and this opening stops me in my tracks -- "It is June & I read about having grace to forgive those who would condemn us." Sadly, way too often it is the religious people who condemn without knowing us, without taking time to see what we hold in common -- our humanity... and seeking to love and be loved... and to be part of a family. Often, family of choice.