GERTRUDE PRESS STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH BLACK LIVES MATTER, AND COMMITS TO CONTINUE TO FEATURE THE STORIES, ART AND VOICES OF THE BLACK QUEER AND TRANS PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ON THE FRONT LINES OF REVOLUTION.
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by Tommye Blount

​[Dahmer mostly took home Black men, but
 
it was never about race, he swore.] A white man’s message:
“I want you to destroy my hole,” then comes
 
an image—a bespectacled face. [In his interview
with Stone Phillips, Dahmer
said it was about a mixture of lust
 
and of control.] He wants to know
if I am dominant. Will I hold him down; force myself
inside him; objectify him? [Harm was not the objective,
 
it was meant as experimentation—turn the underdressed men
into undressed slaves, make them do as ordered.]
“Leave now,” he orders, gives his address, then
 
two more images: his face buried in the bare flesh
of another man’s ass; leonine eyes through the neoprene face
of some animal. [Dahmer’s chemist father took care of
 
the brood that burrowed in the crawlspace
under the house. In a pail of acid, the boy found
the pale] “You’re not crazy
 
or something, are you,” I ask. [ribs so soft]
“Look at me [they couldn’t be called ribs.]
and look at you; I should be afraid of you.” 
Picture
​Born and raised in Detroit, Tommye Blount is the author of What Are We Not For (Bull City Press, 2016) and Fantasia for the Man in Blue (Four Way Books, 2020). A graduate of Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program for Writers, Tommye has been the recipient of fellowships and scholarships from Cave Canem, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and the Kresge Arts in Detroit Foundation.

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