For the video of her 1990 performance of “This Woman’s Work,” by Kate Bush at the Mark III Tap Room2, Muncie, IN.
You can believe it or not, all of this
heartbreaking
drag. & I’ve been thinking
lately that I’m pretty
sick with life. Guts & blood.
Blood, & bills we can’t pay. My hands
are large, but not large
enough to hold it all. Or hit. That’s just
the world—pray God you can cope—
& now I’m starting to look & sound
like everyone’s mother. My hair
& its coil, these golden hoops,
cherry red reflective lips.
On my daily morning commute
I watched as a days-old dead deer
decayed, with each passing dawn
into the newly thawed ground.
Oh, it’s hard on a man . . . now his part is over.
Steel-stenched days, vanilla nights.
I can finally see my face, & ask—
who summoned me?
1 Drag persona of [redacted]. Still living, working, and performing in Muncie, IN.
2 Oldest gay bar in Indiana