the sun broke through gray clouds for the space of three breaths i looked up i felt looked upon acknowledged visible for the space of three months i will not soon forget
March 26, 2021
Category: Poetry
Bless
ed atheist child
less mother un
amazonian leather
ized vegan andro
romantic dyke
chic metal
step Shakespeare re
mix minimum wage
gap ex
feminist none
binary former
trans
monster
hunter
cat
lady
fabulous
(identity)
free
freak
in forty
seven
different
flavors.
March 19, 2021
i stand at the vanishing point i
disappear inside pitted angles of
straight lines i can't grasp the
traps my involuntary skin pinched
across a blush
a
splash
a crease
seeps
between
lips that
speak in unending
silence a red ring of
bull's eye!
furrow
untorn
unseamed
a pool's heart in
sticky winter a
brass echo of
copper after-
taste in
yellow sunlight
little.
yellow.
narrow legs
and
gym socks
running
out
cut away
spine
knuckles
knee caps
elementary organs
bottled
labeled
compartmental-
analyzed
sealed
sifted
severed
tendon
bone
eyelash
remade in the after-
image of some afarensis gorgon
grass eater
dragging scarlet
fleece with
clipped finger-
tip nerve
endings a
stunted
breathless
hollow a
quiet space
between unwanted
angles as
straight
lines
disappear
into
silent
footfalls
in the wet
night.
March 18, 2021
bright morning walking soaring i see you taking wing your solid footsteps on concrete high above those of ordinary men in your voice in the tiniest tip of your finger surpassing by a giant's leap the modern day's diluted definition of courage in your eyes in your bootlaces in every word you speak every word you write every quiet contemplative moment on your walk to work on a bright morning you will soar you will take wing
March 12, 2021
vivid is may
all those
five
point
five
years
ago.
layered over now
with flowers enameled
to a hard polish.
my life. the life i built.
i couldn't scratch the
surface of yours not with
my bone brittle finger-
nails.
i tried.
i daydreamed. could
i belong? could
i be a part of your
family? odd as
i am? as unlike you as
i am? your answer
blew cold in every
direction, every shutting
down, every shutting
out.
i can't belong if
i don't conform if
i can't stay silent if
i don't mouth the party
line. welp. i
couldn't i
wouldn't i
didn't
and
you turned that
label inside
out. who am i?
nothing of yours.
i won't be cruel.
i won't be bitter.
you were right about
some things. there wasn't
enough love there for me.
my friends say not to think
about what you might say if
you could see what i've built,
who and how i love, where i work,
what i do. why should your opinion matter?
you summed it up in that ice
blue icing, written in those
whorled words, you're
you wrote
'You're a
shitty
sister.'
most people, i think, are born into their
families. the rest of us have to find them.
i found mine.
who's to say
who has the luckier
heart?
March 11, 2021
i'm the dandelion of
empty buses and
mildewed picnic tablecloths the
butter yellow polka dotted
dust storm side-eye in
winter boots on the
first of July the
milk-beaded hollow of one
million individual hairs sliding
like copper rods through balding
half-moon fingernails the
smeary grass-stained window
flash of rubberized earth-
worm ribbons the
five-finger pixie parachute
in the porch roof gutter
clog the
solitary sunny none
flower of ragged
brittle lady
balm the
brainless lion's
nodding noggin the
headless high
king's skinned
knees the
bare maraschino
in the
done
day.
March 5, 2021
dogwood simple as a dog rose old ivory burnt crumpled apple green eye on the understory parasol filtered sunbeam milk yellow gray sketch of finger branches fine and gracile upraised be- neath sky high tulip and sycamore alone with airy hemlock and box over nurseries of oak and maple and a much loved neighbor of spring cherries and wild grape in a skirt of cabbage and woodsy winterberry hiding dogwood's secret in the leathery promise of orchids.
February 25, 2021
what's your gender
fender bender?
what's your
pro-
nouns? your
post-
modern
apocalyptic
triptych
she-heeeee
her him thay
what are you
GAAAAAAY?
bendy
enby
all in
outtie
i got a mister sir
with hippy dippy
long hair
and hips i
couldn't hide in
baggy pants
i got a Real Woman
screaming at me in
a bathroom (excuse
me) a ladies room
'cause i failed
that defining
definition of
WOMANHOOD in
all three
dimensions
i got a father a
brother a sister a
friend a stranger
a whole army
saying man man man
aren't you a
lesbiAN?
butch i'm no butch
it's a trademarked
subculture i've got
no business never
minding
and
any-
who spends a year
shuffling paperwork to
become a nobody by
another name? a
funny name is
that your REAL
name? are
you
a
real
person?
a woman a
man?
a somebody to
anybody out
there?
don't accommodate
me i'm no
pussy call me
he she her him hi hello
Hiawatha
call me Al
call me a monkey's
uncle nobody calls
me aunt any-
more
i'm me meaning
nothing symbolizing
nothing representing
nothing for forty-
seven
years of
trans verse
psychosis
between body and
boy-woman-girl-man
an ugly compromise
hiding an
inner oasis of
self-
love and
peace
i'm not here
to play politics or
pound a square peg into
a see-man-tic
merry-go-round
i'm not here
to demand you
understand
i'm not like
you
i'm not like
them
i've got what i want
i'm who i want
to be
i'll die
knowing i
never wanted
to change
one
damn
thing.
February 24, 2021
unaware i was of what a mother does, only carried on in bored distraction 'til i saw that glow of fond regard that pride and measure of devotion twice reflected in return and knew my friend a daughter loved and too a mother cherished.
February 23, 2021
ink trees pour down quilted aluminum sky into a black river rib-cage morning of salt spray and white peach bruises on the tattered end of the last bright dream of winter.
February 23, 2021
