A performance poem about my relationship with my partner written in the vein of a crime whodunnit, I aim to ‘queer’ the boundaries between fact and fiction. It is humorous in tone and uses end of sentence rhyming couplets for poise and wit and dramatic effect when performed. The poem begins with me writing in the first person where the reader gets a sense of my emotions and personal feelings around a particular situation that I have with my partner and Rufus, the dog that we dog-sit. Part of the poem also adopts a style of writing akin to a factual police report written in the past tense to provide narration to a series of events where the reader is unsure who the protagonist of the crime is. Through its playfulness and dark humour, the poem provokes the audience to ask: Who controls who and who is the killer? Rufus the dog or man in a dog-suit? In previous work about me, Alex and Rufus, Rufus also intrudes somehow in our relationship but was light-hearted whereas in this poem. Expect lots of twists and turns!
Lee Campbell makes experimental films and performance poetry about being gay and working class using barbaric wit and humour’. He trained in Fine Art at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London in 2005 and received his doctorate in 2016. He has recently performed at LGBT-centred online poetry events including INCITE!, London Queer Writers, POETRYLGBT, and DISTURBANCE, London. His recent films have been selected for many international queer film festivals including QueerBee LGBT Film Festival, The Gilbert Baker Film Festival, Kansas 2020, HOMOGRAPHY, Brussels and STATES OF DESIRE: Tom of Finland in the Queer Imagination, Casa de Duende, Philadelphia, USA. He has been selected for WICKED QUEER 2021 in Boston, USA, one of the oldest and largest LGBT film festivals in the world. Forthcoming performances include Cruising Dystopia curated by Nouvelle Organon, Berlin.