or is this just another trick to make me believe in 

europe?

    Supposedly the first person to come out was a 

Karl

    & Contrary Sexual Feeling was by another one called Karl 

Westphal

    & Hetero- und Homophilie was by an astrologist called Karl-

Günther Heimsoth

    He must have been studying the stars when he thought of 

potentials

    The Pope is not a Karl but I remember when he said

‘frociaggine’

    I remember because I couldn’t wait to tell you the Pope

said my name

    A few weeks later he said it again & I thought at last it’s been

reclaimed!

    Imagine our joy in 1868 when the first brave Karl coined

‘homosexual’ 

    & finally we had a way to signal to each other our unplaceable

karlness

    Imagine what life was like for gays before Karl-Maria Kertbeny’s

letter

    It must have been like when people still called Pluto a

planet

    When the british empire was still on every continent re-

naming 

    Back when whales were just another type of meat & couldn’t

speak

    Think of a time without Karls, were there really no known

things?

   Was everything just a suggestion floating in the cosmic

broth?

    Perhaps the Karls didn’t want to talk to themselves

anymore

    & that’s why they set about turning their dictionaries to 

the sky

    How were they to know that language always wants to drift 

away?

    These days we have talking whales & we know to feel-out with 

our pulses

    We know to wait                             & see what comes back

mapped