If gender is a performance, then all the world’s a stage. Either we should get season tickets, or go on a whim.

Jonathan Bessette

IF GENDER IS A PERFORMANCE, THEN ALL THE WORLD'S A STAGE. EITHER WE SHOULD GET SEASON TICKETS, OR GO ON A WHIM.

by Jonathan Bessette

You spoke bass notes, rumbling my exposed 

chest. We lay under dallying willow branches.

 

I posed coy questions about roles, severed a skin 

tag from the rough hairiness of your armpit.

 

How could my domestic masculinity untie

ripples of your paternalistic mothering?

 

You inhaled my rose and strawberry perfumes,   

while your loamy musk thickened my olfactory,

 

I grasped your rough hands in moisturized fingers,    

kissing callouses, whispering along your coarse chin.

 

I gave over to the harsh strength of your wrestle, biting 

me down to moan yes. Tangle frothed into sated slumber. 

 

Intertwine lulled easy amid encroaching 

fog, destined to condensation. Bullets 

of cold dew woke us in naked uncertainty. 

 

Scurrying to gather clothes, directions, 

lost north and south in scattered 

moonlight, half-draped in the other, 

 

mismatch of skirt—pants—bra—briefs

 

If we tried, either of us might find 

again this sacred grove, share 

division, touching beyond tragedy 

in a marriage of divorcements 

 

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JONATHAN BESSETTE's writing is informed by many hobbies, including astrology, gaming, gardening, and anarchism. He lives in the unceded and traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səl̓ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) Nations, so-called Vancouver. He’s a founding member of Held Magazine and has published poetry in The Capilano Review and CV2, nonfiction in Adbusters and Quill and Quire, and fiction in The Antigonish Review and carte blanche.

If gender is a performance, then all the world’s a stage. Either we should get season tickets, or go on a whim. was edited by Julia Bortolussi. It can be found in Augur Magazine Issue 8.1.