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Joe Gizzi

@districtjoe

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2216

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poet ✍🏽
A House of Men I Am or Used to Be - 2026 Trio Award Finalist, Button Poetry First Book semi-finalist
dad to @gemmarahne, husband to @admakj

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You sing constantly. On walks home from school, you write a musical about a dragon who can’t breathe fire and a faerie who can’t fly. I shouldn’t be surprised.

We held your sixth birthday party inside when wildfires made it hard to breathe in the park. There are so many things we hide from you, and I wonder if you notice. You seem to notice everything.

Now, with one week of first grade down, you surprise me with how grown up you are in one second and how much you want to remain little in the next.  
You still ride on my shoulders, even at almost fifty pounds. You’re too small to reach the makeup in your closet, but tall enough to ride roller coasters you’re thrilled to go on repeatedly. You’re scared… until you love things.
 You read well but prefer to listen to us at bedtime. Lately it’s American Girl chapter books or grumpy Mother Bruce. Somehow you’ve fallen in love with Miyazaki—Totoro and Ponyo—and we page through the manga adaptations back to front and right to left.

You prefer life to be backward, to be messy.

As you always have been, you are your own creature. Yesterday’s new tricks: landing a cartwheel with one hand, holding a pizza slice in the other; then completing a pre-bedtime gymnastics routine with your sister’s harmonica whistling in your mouth.

Instinctively, you flash a peace sign in photos, if you let anyone take them at all. You can be seen more often in face paint than without it. Two of your teeth have been abducted by the Tooth Fairy, and it’s turned into some sort of multilevel marketing allowance scheme.

You want to do your own hair, to bury yourself in sand, to fly kites, pick berries, or join a parade. You can’t say no to a costume, a tattoo, or a balloon animal. You’d live at Disney World or in a tree house if you could. You slay at bocce and soccer. No boy can knock you down. /1 by @districtjoe

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2 months ago

Provincetown 2026 (part two) taken in Provincetown, Massachusetts by @districtjoe

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3 months ago

Provincetown 2026 (part one) taken in Provincetown, Massachusetts by @districtjoe

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3 months ago

early summer ☀️ by @districtjoe

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3 months ago

So happy to be your dad and daddy #fathersday #gaydads #lgbtqparents by @districtjoe

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4 months ago

I’m so excited to share that my book, A House of Men I Am or Used to Be, has been named a finalist for the Trio Award. The award honors an emerging poet whose manuscript “contributes in an innovative and distinct way to American poetry.” by @districtjoe

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5 months ago

A first look at A House of Men I Am or Used to Be—a poetry collection on masculinity, living in pieces, and the architecture we build to contain ourselves

#poetry #lgbtqpoetry by @districtjoe

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6 months ago

Magic. by @districtjoe

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6 months ago

Somewhere in Portland by @districtjoe

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10 months ago

These two 💕 by @districtjoe

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10 months ago

Fourteen years ago, I met my best friend. by @districtjoe

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10 months ago

Adam and band covering @whereismuna’s “stayaway”

@adamkylemusic ft @petnamesmusic @johnosbornmusic @me_thedream by @districtjoe

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10 months ago