Mar 15Member-onlyJean-JacquesMy colleague, Jean-Jacques, had ideas of reform. He tempted me — we went to have a coffee at a restaurant in Tours, one of those delightful little restaurants of France, where you sit outdoors, in open view of any chance, and free to openly decry the failings of the…Poetry2 min readPoetry2 min read
Published in Prism & Pen·Jan 19Member-onlyMy Happy Transgender Coming-Out StoryIt ends well. But it starts long ago. — When I was a little girl I knew I was a little girl. But that’s like saying I knew the sky is orange. No one knows the sky is orange, because the sky is by definition blue — except in places like Chicago along the lakefront at night, but that’s…Transgender4 min readTransgender4 min read
Jan 13Member-onlyThe Wakeful Beara whimsical sonnet Upon the rising of the sun I rose As well, and went to tend my garden path, But found it blocked by bears in deep repose; And so, not wanting to provoke their wrath, I tarried at the gate, and watched, and mulled. And so, as morning…Poetry1 min readPoetry1 min read
Jan 8Member-onlySaffron: a shaggy dog storySaffron is a precious substance, but easy to obtain. Buy some crocus bulbs. Plant them. Watch them grow. Harvest the saffron. Now your menu is replete with exotic esculents. But the cost of harvest — how severe it is! Its cost is measured in tedium: For you must comb…Poetry3 min readPoetry3 min read
Dec 17, 2022Member-onlyDeath by FogIn the Faroe Islands a farmer may commonly die while minding sheep. Pursuing a wayward sheep in fog a farmer may carelessly step where is no land. Then the descent. From cliffs as tall as these a life may be measured in feet as well as time. Whether fifteen hundred…Poetry1 min readPoetry1 min read
Published in Prism & Pen·Nov 25, 2022Thanksgiving 2022 from a Trans Woman’s PerspectiveA poem of listening — I get so tired, listening to the voices, the words, so many times — Maybe if you were not quite so weird, quite so queer — and so many times we explain, and so many times are unheard. But I hear I am exhausted, and my sisters and brothers are…Transgender1 min readTransgender1 min read
Aug 9, 2022Study no. 4: PedagogyA study on Abel Carlevaro’s Microestudio 6 Each of your efforts, each symptom, each bit of yours written more wittily, wakes in me yearnings, wakes meaning, makes every bit richly felt, even when all I feel, I miss, are feelings of holding you, scolding you, molding you. . . Holding…Poetry1 min readPoetry1 min read
Aug 7, 2022The CicadaI met a cicada the other day. It was sitting on the wall of my garage. Cicadas aren’t seen in my neighborhood — It is not the sort of weather for them here. I looked in its eyes, and was taken back To forgotten bits of memory: of heat, Of…Poetry1 min readPoetry1 min read
Published in Prism & Pen·Aug 2, 2022Green and Blue — a poemgreen can be a shade of blue — a bagatelle — The difference of green to green is like the difference of blue to blue: unseen, but true. The greenness of my green is seen by you as greenness of a different hue. As blue, to me Is seen to be a different blue, like green, by you. Now green can…Poetry1 min readPoetry1 min read
Published in Prism & Pen·Jul 11, 2022Looking for Something I LostA poem — I’m looking for something I lost I don’t know what it is But it looks like a loose green dress floating on a summer meadow of wildflowers It smells like earth And the perfume of those flowers It moves like a shadow caught in the corner of my sight It…Poetry2 min readPoetry2 min read
