How to eat a wedge salad

kuwisdelu

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Decide to walk to the theater
by Fenway Park, because it's
nice outside, and there are sure to be
some Pokemon along the way.

Wear the frilly blue top with
the see-through ruffled shoulders you like
so much. Do your make-up, careful
to cover up the dark spot on
your lip where you burned

your mustache off with laser beams.
It feels like sunburn.

The Pokemon Go servers go down

the moment you step outside.
Take the T halfway until the servers
are back up. Catch a Spearow.

When the servers crash again, remember
to take another dose of Spiro.

Consider wearing a skirt next time.
It's summer, after all,
and you usually pass
as a cis girl now.

Enter the cool theater and buy a ticket,
trying not to think about how much
it costs or how much
your rent will be next month.

Wear your 3D glasses like a gangster.

Ghostbusters is good.

Giggle like a schoolgirl.
Scream like a grown ass lady.
Swoon like a baby dyke.

Fall a little in love
with Kate McKinnon. Then remember

that comedy sketch where she played
a British cis boy
who wanted a vagina.
Desperately try to sort out
how you feel about that.

Until she licks her proton gun.
Then decide it's probably okay.

When the movie gets out, the Pokemon Go servers
are still down, and the T is packed.

Walk two miles back home.

Think you should definitely get
a haircut with some more edge to it.
You need to cultivate your queerness
if you want to keep dating girls.

Your phone still has some battery left (and
this is very important), so you decide to stop
at a bar for dinner. Sit at the bar.

Get "ma'amed", and order a saison.

When the bartender asks for an ID, hand it
over to him, very casually,
like it's no big deal,
and go back to inspecting the food menu.

When the bartender is still looking at your ID,
with some suspicion now,
twisting it this way and that,
investigating how it diffracts light
in the sinking New England sunlight,

look up and smile softly
at him. Think, well,
it's an out-of-state ID.

Receive your ID when it's returned to you.
The bartender says nothing. Breathe out.

Mac and cheese sounds amazing, but you chose
sleep instead of your morning run today, so
a salad will have to do.

The Greek sounds good, but remember you haven't had
any protein yet today. And the Wedge has bacon.

Order the wedge salad.

When the bartender takes your order,
he says "sir."

Die a little inside.

Start questioning everything about your day.

Is my make-up off?
Are my breasts too manly?
Was everyone actually staring on the T?
Do I look like a drag queen like this?

When the wedge salad comes, there is one
thick, flaccid strip of bacon
draped over the lettuce
like a dead animal, and there is
absolutely nothing phallic about it.

Except you wonder
if it is a metaphor for the penis
tucked inside your panties.

Then the other bartender asks
"Would you like another beer, miss?"

And all is right with the world.

The feminist inside you cringes
at how reliant on male validation you've become.

The bacon isn't even very good.

But maybe you'll wear the skirt tomorrow
and watch Ghostbusters again.
 
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CassandraW

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Thanks so much for sharing this, Kuwi.

The little details about your narrator's personal appearance are effective -- the frilly top, the dark spot from lasering, the consideration of the skirt. I see her vividly; and by halfway through I know she's a trans girl. (I'm not entirely sure of that before the 7th stanza -- but that's good. That adds to my impression of a trans girl who passes pretty easily as a cis girl. The delayed certainty on this parallels what you do with the ID.)

The waitstaff checking her ID, alternatively addressing her as "miss" and "sir", and the narrator's mood shifting with it, also worked well for me. The poem does a nice job of giving the reader some insight into a trans girl's feelings without clubbing us over the head with a lecture on it. (I did some musing about the mindset of the waiter who insisted on saying "sir" despite the fact the narrator is quite obviously presenting as a woman -- more or less concluding that the waiter is deliberately being an asshole.)

If it were mine (and of course it is not), I might be inclined to tighten it a bit to highlight that aspect. For this reader, the Pokemon references and the consideration of other menu items were a bit distracting and not really necessary. I very much liked your wedge salad description and I thought the Ghostbusters reference worked, especially because the new movie's substitution of female characters for male is so well known (and for some, controversial), and because of Kate McKinnon's past role. Those both directly play into and highlight the emotions of your trans girl, IMO. But I'm not sure the Pokemon and mac-n-cheese add anything. Also, why is the phone battery important?

Take me with a grain of salt -- I must admit I am utterly clueless on the Pokemon thing so I might well be missing something huge here.

Good to see you back in the poetry forum! Stick around, won't you?
 
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kuwisdelu

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Thanks!

I admit my first foray into poetry in 2016 is rather frivolous. That was literally Wednesday for me. The Pokemon Go servers going down was very frustrating, and I just really wanted that mac and cheese. And I usually love bacon but that strip was just really super flaccid and lame. That's all. :tongue
 
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CassandraW

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That bacon does sound supremely unappetizing. I found myself wishing you'd ordered the mac-n-cheese.

I didn't find the poem frivolous at all -- I thought it showed some insight, made use of some metaphors, and I stepped pretty easily into your narrator's shoes from my cis-female shoes.

I might be the only person on the planet who is still clueless on the Pokemon Go thing. It's sad.
 

Latina Bunny

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Nice poem! :)

You can feel the trans girl (or trans woman?) anxiety as the waiter checks her ID and when he addressed her as "sir" and she starts questioning about her appearance being enough, etc. We can sense her relief when the waiter finally addressed her as female.

I chuckled a little at some parts (because I'm twelve in the inside sometimes). XD The limp bacon and the penis metaphor part made me smile. It ties into the concerns and thoughts of the character.

That Kate McKinnon fact was interesting. I didn't know that. It's cool how you kind of tie that fact to fit the gender/sex theme of the poem. :)

Lol @ the Pokemon Go reference. XD So tired of hearing about it these days, though. :p
 

kuwisdelu

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You can feel the trans girl (or trans woman?) anxiety as the waiter checks her ID and when he addressed her as "sir" and she starts questioning about her appearance being enough, etc. We can sense her relief when the waiter finally addressed her as female.

I chuckled a little at some parts (because I'm twelve in the inside sometimes).

I usually think "girl" in my head (because I'm also 12 inside) but tend to say "woman" (because for some reason other people think I'm a grown-up).
 

CassandraW

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I actually used "trans girl" in my post because it is the term you usually use in the Girl Stuff thread. Plus this narrator exudes youth to me -- I think it's partly the Pokemon and partly that she's getting proofed.
 

kuwisdelu

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I actually used "trans girl" in my post because it is the term you usually use in the Girl Stuff thread.

Well, it is the Girl Stuff thread. :tongue ;)

Edit: Damn you all now I have that Britney Spears "not a girl not yet a woman" song stuck in my head. Why must you do this to me.
 
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