21 Nov Jeanette Beebe
MATERIAL PEARL
She
took the first dose
of estrogen under
her tongue,
and waited for it
to dissolve.
She
stood at the shelf
between two rooms,
a body
that surpasses itself,
the parts she
was born with,
a body that’s pliable,
but not
infinite, not too,
a body not.
She
stayed back, closed
her eyes, breathed in,
out, herself.
On the bed of her mouth
sat a pearl.
It was a thing for becoming.
It tasted so. It tasted sweet.
A weight. A place. A container.
She swallowed or yawned,
and the pearl was gone.
HOW TO COME OUT AND SHINE
We want the body to be
how we open the door.
Our magic. A red sign:
NO TRESSPASSING,
as if love could be had,
by an owner, or a core.
Our map marks where
we expect it to turn.
The ground is a tissue.
It absorbs. And light
is a thing we’ve made.
A wave — it passes
through. It’s what we
won’t look into.
Jeanette Beebe is a genderqueer poet and journalist based in New Jersey. She holds an A.B. in English with certificates in Gender & Sexuality Studies and Creative Writing from Princeton. Twitter: @JeanetteBeebe. www.jeanettebeebe.com
