Poetry Pick with Kelsey, Part 2

Okay, so I couldn't pick just one...

A Poem in Response to Those Who Argue that my Desire
            to Purposefully Remove my Breasts is an Anti-Feminist Notion

Keep in mind I weigh a buck eighty five 

and this is not about a desire for less flesh 

Keep in mind that celebrating womanhood is a trap 

and that the men’s shirts I like to wear 

are not conducive to a breast environment

Admit that it is your body that you want me to celebrate 

that in fact you want my assurance that your own breasts 

are a part of your picture ID card at the woman club.

What a paradise it is to not think in halves but tops and bottoms 

I’m all man on the top and woman on the bottom 

see how that works, all man on the top and woman on the bottom

You may want to inquire about my mind, after all, 

we wouldn’t want my mind to me male and it happens to be on top 

Mind on top, woman on the bottom 

See how that works? 

Mind on top and woman on the bottom.

My mind is not a man. In fact, my mind 

hates my man because my man is trying to be on top 

and mind is on top, mind has to be on top

You still want to me to tell you what I would call myself then 

being all man on the top and woman on the bottom 

You still want me to name it, to name 

what my vagina and breast-less chest

would mean or be called, and I say, You do it. After all, 

it is you who have been naming me all along.

                                -Stacey Waite

Come hear Stacey Waite and Susanna Childress read their poetry October 6 at 7pm in Beaverdale Books! The reading is FREE and open to the public. "Like" us on Facebook at Younger American Poets Reading Series for more information about upcoming readings!