Synkroniciti is excited to welcome Houston poet Stephen Schwei with “People You Don’t Want to Run into in a Gay Bar.” This poem was published previously in table//FEAST Magazine as winner of the 2023 Kenan Ince Memorial Prize. Stephen walks the edge between humor and vulnerability, showing us how our minds work to keep us from shame, harm and awkwardness. This is especially true for marginalized people who have to protect themselves in social situations by making snap judgements and avoiding connection with anyone too risky. “A guy you owe money to. Your sanctimonious sister./ The guy you think represents queers all wrong—/ too feminine, in leather, or wearing too little./ The person who saw you make a fool of yourself./ Your car mechanic in a banana hammock.” We all have people we don’t want to belong with, some for good reasons and others for petty ones, and Stephen’s willingness to share this internal monologue is a springboard for examining our thoughts and actions. Humor, closely related to play, opens us up to learning new things and seeing the world differently.
Read “People You Don’t Want to Run into in a Gay Bar” in Synkroniciti’s “Belonging” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Stephen Schwei is a Pushcart-nominated Houston poet with Wisconsin roots, published in Wax Poetry & Art, RFD Magazine, GetOutMag.com, Hidden Constellation, Borfski Press, and Table//Feast and is the winner of the 2023 Kenan Ince Memorial Prize in Poetry. He has published one volume of poetry, Bluebonnet Whispers. A gay man with three grown children and four wonderful grandchildren, who worked in Information Technology most of his life, he can be a mass of contradictions. Poetry helps to sort all of this out.
Check out his website, http://www.stephenschwei.com. Find him on Instagram, X and Facebook: @steveschwei