Devon Balwit
Here & Elsewhere
I have no penis, but I might have;
I have breasts, but one day won’t.
Don’t doesn’t mean can’t imagine
opening other doors to strange beds,
or greeting a brown face in my mirror,
or one in hijab, hearing the muezzin.
I have ten fingers but might not have,
lifting deftly with stump or prosthesis,
am animal, but might have rooted,
shedding leaves when the light wanes,
or tendrilling slantwise, vine-hungry.
I mothered children but might have
whelped pups in an alley, suckling
litters rather than proffering a lone
latex nipple. I teach, but might have
shucked oysters, pitted apricots,
trenched earth shoulder to shoulder
with sweating bodies. Here, just as
easily, I could have been elsewhere,
my only failure that of imagining.
Devon Balwit is a writer/teacher from Portland, OR. Her poems of protest have appeared here before as well as in The New Verse News, Poets Reading the News, Redbird Weekly Reads, Rise-Up Review, Rat’s Ass Review, The Rising Phoenix Review, Mobius, and more.
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