Anne Shaw's "Drag King Manifesto" {a pirate of a poem}

Drag King Manifesto

That woman is an engine, I refuse. To generate. To be chambered. To combust.


Let her who would acquire don the masculine article. The necktie and the wingtip and the the.
The leather chair, its kingdom. As swishy shadow tidies in the wake.


I too unhitch my notice. I touch what I will touch. I wear roulette-wheel cufflinks
and filch the jack of diamonds from the deck.


I'll show you how to razor: Take off your gown of ghosts. Untie your solaces, unzip your name.



Let her who would be pirate begin in piracy. The double-breasted suit. The clip.
And Adam's apple pendant in the throat.


Let her who would go veiled take up her wrench, her drill. Up her sleeve the jackal
of hearts, the jack of jills.


Let her in frilled distress begin. To study the mallet, the screw.


And therefore tinker. Therefore crux. How treason wears the pants.


Let her who would go naked smith her tool.
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by Anne Shaw, author of Undertow and Shatter and Thrust (Persea)

image from the wonderful Liana's Paper Doll Blog