A Text from the Pool
by Gunner Smith
Blue, the color I wake up to every morning. The pool you stand inside to tell everyone how immoral they are.
Edna from The Awakening— knowing she can never truly be happy.
I’m a feminist now, and I write when I feel like it—
Why did I wake up thinking about you?
Carton from A Tale of Two Cities.
I draped my body over your shoulders like tired chains—
Until I became one of the jeweler’s creations.
Once upon a time—
Scribble and scratch, manifestation of the mind.
I speak.
To him, to him, and to him.
Sometimes to her.
“I could never be in a monogamous relationship”
I’m some country boy who doesn’t know how to say compass.
Would a cowboy hat perform well for you in the bedroom?
Yee haw.
I could scream.
While your toes and fingers wrinkle like a prune—
Calling out injustices from a luxury home.
Blessed are the bourgeois—
Lucie Manette.
My books are color coded. Dante’s Inferno to the Iliad. From hell to dying for it and calling it honor.
White- St. Thomas Aquinas, we are natural born sinners—
Are you tired of text yet?
Empty Rooms and Empty Conversations. Molly O’Neill. Collage. 2020.
Artist Statement from Gunner
My name is Gunner Smith, and I am a queer artist. I am inspired by love stories, and these intimate exchanges between people. Oftentimes, I reflect on my own experiences as a bisexual male-- all of the secrets I keep. I think about closeted men I am silenced by, gay men that chase the next best thing, or all the girls that want a masculine presenting man. Sometimes I feel as if my sexuality doesn’t have a place in the world. The world is complex. I am an impatient person, whether that be in my relationships or my art: I move on quickly. My process is fast, and I diversify materials and mediums quite a bit. Sometimes, I would like for my body or hand to be more present. I feel very connected to my art and the process. I write in the notes of my phone: these relationships and the people I have once loved, or liked, or felt completely impartial towards.