Embedded Files
from MY IMPRESSIONS*
My Birth
after Chelsey Minnis’ Baby, I Don’t Care
The world couldn’t start without me.
I shot like a cork
from a shaken champagne bottle, hit
the back wall to applause.
I already knew Beethoven
had 88 teeth waiting on a Vegas smile.
My Childhood
ungenerous art-straw corn dolly
chicken’s ribcage
in a place of expression
My Relationships
I suppose that as long as I remain
a bachelor people are going to ask me
why I have never got married.
So let me tell you.
11 years old, playing house
with the girl next door. We had a chalet
and ran the line straight
from courtship to pregnancy
and perilous ravine escape.
Such a precedent set the bar
far too high. I met the heiress of a citrus estate
and fled into the arms of a beauty
who made ice sculptures and only
drank champagne. Basic hydration
proved financially unsustainable.
I saw the world. There was really no time
or space but it felt like four long years in a cupboard.
My Relationships (Abridged)
Suppose that
pops up in
unless. Then
a little somewhat
was next to
why else.
My Philosophy
What would future sentences look like and what would
they do in a present that precedes their use or, at least,
precedes the places to which they point? – Renee Gladman, Plans for Sentences
Too much of a good thing is wonderful.
A poor showman blames his tulle.
You can have a free lunch
but you can’t judge a broth and throw stones.
People in glass houses spoil the cover.
Birds of a feather make a boa or two.
You can lead a horse to those who wait.
Good things come to tango.
It takes two in one basket.
It’s always darkest before you adorn.
Honey, you catch more flies than Little Miss Vinegar.
All that glitters.
* Note: My Impressions, the sequence from which the poems above are taken, attempts to write with Liberace, the once-popular entertainer, as well as responding to the work of other poets. It is an exploration of relationality through writing. Phrases in italics are Liberace’s words.
Tom White is the co-founder and co-editor of Fruit (http://fruitjournal.co.uk/) – a queer literary journal now in its sixth year – and a PhD student at Southampton University and Bath Spa University. He researches the strategies that queer people employ to find sustenance in a culture which offers too little, and is currently exploring those strategies in poems centred on Liberace.
Copyright © 2026 by Tom White, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of Copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.
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