Sondra Armer

My Interests:

poetry, environmental issues, gay rights

Political Skills:

I am a writer, copy editor, and proofreader.

Favorite Quote:

The consciousness of being at war, and therefore in danger, makes the handing-over of all power to a small caste seem the natural, unavoidable condition of survival.
--George Orwell, "1984"

About Me:

A poem I wrote (published in 2001 in "The South Carolina Review":

Epithalamion for Sam and Chris

When I mention in conversation
I went to your "commitment ceremony,"
often an anxious pause ensues.
Some ask, attempting to be tactful,
if you were being committed,
or does this mean you've been released.

A bit of both, perhaps.
Released, of course,
from camouflage and cover stories,
though under local laws
you are committing sins and should be put away.
Maybe you ought to have your heads examined,
inviting not just friends but also family—
grandmothers, aunts, uncles, cousins,
parents, step-parents, four generations—
to accept in open air,
beneath a Jewish canopy
beneath the canopy of God's own sky
(if you insist, the Goddess's own sky),
two brides, unblushing, not a groom in sight.

"Do you, Samantha, take Christine to be…"
To be what? Thus starts the inquisition.
I guess you must be sane, or else the world s gone mad:
they came, the in-laws of two outlaws,
they came with gifts and kisses,
to celebrate the union
of Sam's life with Chris's
happily ever after Mrs. and Mrs.