[ Violence in North Carolina could not stop the drag show, as poet
A.E. Hines depicts the resistance. ]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT IN MOORE COUNTY, N.C.  
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A.E. Hines
December 18, 2022
Rattle
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_ Violence in North Carolina could not stop the drag show, as poet
A.E. Hines depicts the resistance. _

,

 

The Night the Lights Went Out in Moore County, North Carolina

By A.E. Hines  _ _

These must be dark times if you think

shooting up a substation and blacking out 

 

the lights will shut-down a drag show.

Have you ever been to a drag show?

 

Yes, there will be singing. Even in the dark.

Unflappable queens black-belting Beyonce

 

and Madonna, hovering in the quivered

glow of bar top candles, silver beams

 

from a hundred mobile phones showering

them like bedazzled songbirds, lashes

 

glittering like wings and lifting them

from a thin nest of stars on the soft breeze

 

of applause and our waving dollar bills.

We’ve labored in the night long enough

 

to know how to fashion our own halos.

Make our own light. I doubt you’ve ever

 

dropped a copper penny to preserve

a vase of daises, or know a jigger of vodka

 

brings valentine roses back to their feet,

but know you’ll find no wilting flowers here,

 

just at the edge of the stage. With its green

stiffened spine, the boozy and voluptuous

 

tulip takes no bows. With outstretched petals

outlasting gravity and death, it refuses to bend.

About the Poem:

Two power substations were recently attacked in rural North Carolina,
leaving thousands without power for days. Because of the timing and
proximity to right-wing protests of a local drag performance, rumors
quickly spread that hate was the motive for turning out the lights.
But the show went on (even in the dark, even as it was picketed by
fanatics), as the drag artists calmly led patrons in a sing-a-long.
This act of defiance and perseverance provided the inspiration for
this poem.

A.E. Hines’s debut collection, _Any Dumb Animal_, received Honorable
Mention in the North Carolina Poetry Society’s 2022
Brockman-Campbell Book contest, and was a daVinci Eye finalist for the
Eric Hoffer Book award. His poems have been widely published in
anthologies and literary journals, including more recently:
_Rattle_, _Alaska Quarterly Review, The Southern Review, Rhino, Ninth
Letter, The Missouri Review, Poet Lore, The Greensboro Review,
_and_ I-70 Review._ He resides in Charlotte, North Carolina and
Medellín, Colombia. www.aehines.net [[link removed]].

 

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