Phases is a collection of poems about gender, coming-of-age, and sexuality. Part 1 is spoken from the point of view of a girl who is coming to terms with the end of childhood and the development of her own gender identity and sexuality. She attends her grandfather's funeral and talks about the changes she notices in her body. She describes being a tomboy, the beginning of menstruation. She catches her father masturbating to Playboy magazines. Later, she snoops at the hidden magazines and conveys her unease, knowing that her body is not like the models on the page. She talks about standing up to a bully and how she could tie a tie better than anyone.Part 2. Now she speaks as an adult. She talks about an unhappy marriage and a conflict with her son who doesn't want to cook at a family gathering because it is 'Bgirls' work'. Her and her husband are going to marriage counseling. She describes getting an ultrasound. She must get a hysterectomy to remove pre-cancerous tumors, which will leave her infertile. She menstruates for the last time. She describes the operation and recovery and resenting her husband for his lack of support. She compares her loss to the 'dark side of the moon.' Part 3. This section is called 'Deviation.' Describes the awkwardness and unease at a school dance between the boys and girls. Says that she will 'cross over' and how she is drawn to the beauty of the dangerous black rocks while visiting Peggy's Cove. She describes getting a tattoo and the pain of it that takes her to a 'place of knowing'. She describes her first kiss with another woman, conveys scenes of various trysts with a female lover. Then she is at a gay bar, flirting with women, gay men, drag queens. She describes being at a strip club for straight men and how it couldn't have been less sexy. There are a series of erotic and intimate poems here where she describes her relationship with her lover. 'Why a Parade?' summarizes the themes of the book where she describes various people from childhood to their senior years who struggle with a non-conforming gender identity that needs to be expressed and embraced. The poems then shift towards the speaking voice of a drag king's liberating and bombastic performance. --$cProvided by publisher.
Authors
Related Organizations
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Date published
- 2019.
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- C811/.6
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm),
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- ISBN
- 9781550505238
- LCCN
- PR9199.4.B47886
- LCCN Item number
- A6 2019eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- NLC
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (79 pages)
- Published in
- Regina, Saskatchewan
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)kck00240566 (OCoLC)1102634523 (CaOOCEL)457527
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- NLC
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Front Matter 2
- Title Page 4
- Book Information 5
- Notes 92
- Table of Contents 7
- Epigraph 10
- 1 Saros Cycle 12
- What I Know 14
- First Funeral 15
- Dress Up 16
- A Doctor Talks to 9-to-12-year-olds 17
- Elephant 18
- Night Light 19
- Mixed Signals 1972 20
- Savasana 21
- Blood 22
- Tied Right 23
- Wrong Reasons 24
- Right Reasons 25
- Bread 25
- Flight Path 27
- 2 Grazing Occultation 28
- Personal Ad 30
- The Rest is History 31
- Siblings 32
- Marriage Counseling (He Said, I Said) 33
- Understanding Hysterectomy 34
- Where There is Darkness 44
- To the Bonehouse 45
- Tsunami 46
- Carrying the Moon 47
- Vermin 48
- Stations 49
- Boundless 50
- Perigee Syzygy 51
- Single Woman and a Bear 52
- Mating Dance 53
- Wave Me Over (Peggy’s Cove, November) 55
- 3 Orbital Eccentricity 58
- Pierce 60
- Once Upon a Time 62
- Closets 63
- Coming Out 64
- What Do Lesbians Do? 65
- Not Just Dessert 66
- At the Gay Bar 67
- Tick 68
- Super Sexe (Montreal) 69
- A Man, Passing 70
- Feast 70
- Moon Tongue 72
- Folk Festival 73
- Why a Parade? 73
- Drag King 76
- Ask a Drag King 86
- In Drag 87
- Texting Dyke van Dick 88
- The Right Woman 90
- Acknowledgements 94
- About the Author 96
