Changed. Done
Changed. Did. Did been.
Do. The woo
They
Do opon the shores,
The mercy that isn’t taken against
Thy cliff
Be
How, the ways
In which, such privilege, and thusly
Y’all all
Changed
In respect,
Apparently, to gender
Entering me.
Days
Some start with little or
Less gender; other days overwhelm.
Why, yes, today
Is
Very gendered! The air
Bethicked right salt
Of it, and free
And
Everywhere
I look! Some days go
Restlessly, I remember,
And
I begin again the woes’
Whoing me up, a sun
Across a fog,
Desire,
Dolores and Truth,
The blue way
An ocean revises the shore,
Hinges,
Hinges that are the birds flying,
My very skin, black, growing
Softer
On
Each spill of a pill, breasts, lips,
The conjugation of
My waist, my
Hips,
And so daybreak
Breaks over me,
Apparent, a new woman,
Venus
Out of the grammared
Pearl and waves
To you, waves,
Waves—
It’s no longer then
You see me. No,
You sea me.
_______________________________________
The preceding is from the Freeman’s channel at Literary Hub, which features excerpts from the print editions of Freeman’s, along with supplementary writing from contributors past, present and future. The latest issue of Freeman’s, a special edition gathered around the theme of change, features work by Joshua Bennett, Sandra Cisneros, Lauren Groff, Sayaka Murata and Ocean Vuong among others, is available now.
