"a confidant, an ally, a glittering, platform-stilettoed saviour"

Can a poem be a confidant, an ally, a glittering, platform-stilettoed saviour? The poems in Patterflash, by Adam Beyonce Lowe (Peepal Tree Press), can. They're here for you and queer for you, but queer for themselves, too: this isn't LGBTQI+ narrative as external spectacle: the gaze being satisfied is internal. The fire being stoked resides right in your soul. Adam's poems are playful, revolutionary, gaudy when he wants them to be. They're defiant lipstick-smeared emblems of a state of living, and loving, in which we can have some goddamned pride. "Tell me who to petition, who to burn out, who to placard -- you promised me this, sister. Come now. Keep your vow. This world could soon be ours. Be my damn lover."