You Better Be Lightning
PRAISE FOR ANDREA GIBSON
“Andrea Gibson’s work looks likes poetry, and sounds like poetry, but feels like something much larger, more expansive.”
—Posture
“Gibson’s poems are forthright and pithy, putting into words the feelings of anyone who has been angry, or outraged, or embarrassed, or in love.”
—Star Tribune
“Andrea Gibson’s work shows up to your door without any pretension. It gives, pushes, and asks, knowing that even its beauty cannot answer it all. Each poem is a small fire signaling home, and home happens to be ourselves. Gibson has generously given us a blissful surrender to the immensity known as love.”
—Yesika Salgado, author of Corazón
“With such tenderness and empathy and humor, Andrea Gibson’s You Better Be Lightning does such important dreaming work, visioning work, looking work, in this stunning collection of generous poems. Of these poems’ infinite superpowers, my favorite might be their use of anecdotes as a sort of beckoning, welcoming a reader into this book’s lush ecosystem of intimacy. Read these poems and feel held, welcomed, forgiven.”
— Safia Elhillo, author of The January Children
“Andrea Gibson is in the fight for hearts and minds. with a relentless sense of urgency and emotions—‘having feelings all over’—leavened by an occasional flash of humor.”
—Boston Globe
“Gibson captures raw human experiences and emotions—both good and bad and turns them into something optimistic and hopeful, reminding their audience of the power in vulnerability and in living.”
—Out Front Magazine
“Andrea Gibson’s poems are an active volcano—they burn away and rebirth—a creation story in every line.”
—Sonya Renee Taylor, author of
The Body Is Not An Apology
YOU BETTER BE
LIGHTNING
YOU BETTER BE
LIGHTNING
Andrea Gibson
© 2021 by Andrea Gibson
Published by Button Poetry / Exploding Pinecone Press
Minneapolis, MN 55403 | http://www.buttonpoetry.com
All Rights Reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Cover design: Amy Law
ISBN 978-1-943735-99-0
eBook ISBN: 978-1-63834-016-4
A Note on Poetry E-Books
You are reading a poetry e-book, which, based on the settings of your device, can result in significant changes to the original formatting as intended by the author and publisher. For the best experience reading this book, please set your device so that the following line fits entirely on one line on your screen.
the beginning might actually be when our hearts have perfect vision.
For Manny—
when I’m riding on the handlebars
out of the pitch dark, your light
is pedaling.
Contents
Acceptance Speech after Setting the World Record in Goosebumps
The Year of No Grudges, or Instead of Writing a Furious Text, I Try a Poem
The Museum of Broken Relationships
Time Piece
Queer Youth Are Five Times More Likely to Die by Suicide
No Such Thing as the Innocent Bystander