June 14, 2025

To Patrick Swayze, Thanks for Everything! Mejdulene Shomali

by Mejdulene B. Shomali

This Pride Month 2025, Mizna is honored to be republishing selections from Mizna 21.1: Queer + Trans Voices for every week of June. This week, Mejdulene B. Shomali chronicles a revelatory moment of self-realization and tributes the iconic actor Patrick Swayze.

Use coupon code SWANAPRIDE25 for a discount on Mizna 21.1: Queer + Trans Voices and the special collection I Want Sky honoring martyred Egyptian queer activist Sarah Hegazy, valid through the end of June 2025.

—Nour Eldin H., assistant editor

                the bouncer of my road house heart
           my wild Johnny
the first man i thought to love

—Mejdulene B. Shomali

To Patrick Swayze, Thanks for
Everything! Mejdulene Shomali

Patrick Swayze nailed the lift
                baby out of the corner
           into the sky        a rare bird
something beautiful

my VCR rewound & replayed
                to see his smile
           watch her sink down
against his chest        his unbuttoned black shirt

Patrick wore that red dress
                drove queens in the desert
           locks blowing in the convertible breeze
saved Stockard from a bad man

made a whole town believe in something
                in whiteness
           fuchsia sweetheart neckline
lacy black gloves

even as a ghost Patrick moved
                penny up the door i wanted
           to see it again when
he passed too young too gaunt

with what cancer took
                i remember him like this
           tight black jeans no spaghetti arms
twisting hips from tips of feet

Patrick was never a punchline for me
                the bouncer of my road house heart
           my wild Johnny
the first man i thought to love

Mejdulene Bernard Shomali is a queer Palestinian poet and associate professor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Williams College. She is the author of Between Banat: Queer Arab Critique and Transnational Arab Archives (Duke University Press 2023) and the chapbook agriculture of grief: prayers for my father’s dementia (Finishing Line Press 2024).