Sage
Old Faithful
I’m the sexiest girl in Levi’s jeans
and a jockstrap you’ll ever see
my black dress under my layers
of lumberjack flannel a beard
that stretches from my chin
to the woods around Yosemite
I chop down trees build decks
from them I cut grass with my teeth
Go get ‘em, girl!
my purse matches my carpenter boots
matches the trailer I use to haul
cords of wood big-ass fireplace
eats them up rough handled axe
for chopping smells like the Axe
on my body I smell like someone
you’d take home after drinks
when I pass women on the street
I wonder if my assigned male body
terrifies them as it terrifies me
I build Ikea furniture like a pro
tie shoelaces the way I tie knots
I learned in Boys’ Scouts
maybe if I spray enough Axe I’ll
blend in with the other guys
and they won’t notice the
hem of my dress poking out
when my professor addresses
“All the guys in the room”
I drag my eyes up to look
I guess he means me too
I guess I didn’t wear my dress
tight enough today I guess
the flannel doesn’t mean “Lesbian Here!”
just means another dude with a dick
she can’t undress from another guy
with a body and that body is hers to keep
no refunds please check your dysphoria at the door.
maybe I’ll go to Yosemite someday maybe
someone else will go to Yosemite in his place
and she will love the geysers as much as I do
she’ll jump in the geyser and he’ll jump in
too I’ll take pictures together we’ll all be
a national park
Sage is a Creative Writing undergraduate student at Elms College in Massachusetts. They work on and have been published in their campus’ literary magazine, BLOOM. They received the Blue House Writing Center Fellowship from Elms College two years in a row, and this summer they participated in the 2016 Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts. Their work was recently published in the Glass Poetry Press’ special feature “Pulsamos,” in honor of the Orlando shooting in June. Sage enjoys hunting through Western Mass for poetry slams, fellow artists, and the odd elephant.
