Zoe Leonard - I Want a President

 Zoe Leonard

I Want a President

1992

"I Want a President was partly inspired by Eileen Myles, a feminist poet and activist who announced she would enter the 1992 Presidential race against George H. W. Bush, Ross Perot, and Bill Clinton. Leonard, a dedicated AIDS activist as well as an artist, also created the work in response to the US government's inaction on the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and early '90s. It originally existed as a shared photo-copy sent to friends."

"I want a dyke for president. I want a person // with aids for president and I want a fag for // vice president and I want someone with no // health insurance and I want someone who grew // up in a place where the earth is so saturated // with toxic waste that they didn't have a // choice about getting leukemia. I want a // president that had an abortion at sixteen and // I want a candidate who isn't the lesser of two // evils and I want a president who lost their // last lover to aids, who still sees that in // their eyes every time they lay down torest [sic], // who held their lover in their arms and knew // they were dying. I want a president with no // airconditioning [sic], a president who has stood on // line at the clinic, at the dmv, at the welfare // office and has been unemployed and layed off and // sexually harrassed and gaybashed and deported. // I want someone who has spent the night in the // tombs and had a cross burned on their lawn and // survived rape. I want someone who has been in // love and been hurt, who respects sex, who has // made mistakes and learned from them. I want a // Black woman for president. I want someone with // bad teeth and an attitude ["and an attitude" crossed out], someone who has // eaten that nasty ["that nasty" crossed out] hospital food, someone who // crossdresses [sic] and has done drugs and been in // therapy. I want someone who has committed // civil disobedience. And I want to know why this // isn't possible. I want to know why we started // learning somewhere down the line that a president // is always a clown: always a john and never // a hooker. Always a boss and never a worker, // always a liar, always a thief and never caught." Daqui