Distributed for Tupelo Press
Butch Geography
In her Los Angeles Review of Books essay “Who Is Who: Pronouns, Gender, and Merging Selves,” Dana Levin describes Stacey Waite’s fusion of gender identities: “Pseudonyms, heteronyms, personae, all the ventriloquizing literary arts; point of view and tonal shifts: these are tools for speakers and speaking. But the sentence too has a voice: ‘i will not be the kind of boy who can not bear the memory of her body’ … This is [Waite’s] genius … to take innocuous syntactical phrasing and change the players mid-sentence — to get around English’s pronominal either/or by creating a syntactical both/and…”
Table of Contents
Contents
I
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Boy by the Umpire… - 3
Self-Portrait, 1984 - 4
Letter to Brian Nelson, Who Chanted Boy or a Girl, Boy or a Girl… - 5
In Second Grade Robby O’Reilly Punches Me in the Eye.... - 6
Boys in Trees - 7
The Monkevs - 8
Self-Portrait, 1986 -9
Elegy -10
Kimberlv - 11
It Has Always Been Frankie Cossinelli - 12
Tits - 14
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for the Delivery Boy… - 16
About Ben - 18
Gesture Toward Seeing It Coming - 20
Remembering a Full Moon, Threaded 21
Dear Gender - 22
II
Butch Geography - 25
When the Dead Ask for Maps - 27
Wedding Photo, 1968 - 28
Dear Gender - 29
Poem for My First Girlfriend - 30
Poem for My First Girlfriend - 31
Prince, the Androgynous - 32
If I Were a Man, She’d Be in Love with Me - 33
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Man by the Cashier… - 34
Coming Out in Porch Light - 35
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Man by a Waiter… - 37
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Man by Security Personnel … - 39
What It Means to Inherit - 41
What the Fire Teaches - 42
Dear Gender - 43
Choke - 44
III
In the Womb - 47
Dear Gender - 48
To a Woman Who Has Never Been My Lover - 49
XY - 50
Love Poem to Androgyny - 51
Fixing My Voice - 52
To a Woman Who Has Never Been My Lover - 53
At a Rest Stop in Central Pennsylvania, a Man Chokes Me… - 54
Reading Stone Butch Blues - 55
Talk Show - 56
Penis Envy - 57
From Laramie - 58
For Tomboys - 59
A Poem in Response to Those Who Argue That… - 60
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Man by a Pregnant Woman… - 61
Dear Gender - 62
IV
Butch Defines Feminism under the Following Conditions - 65
Changing the Names - 67
The Clownfish - 68
The Kind of Man I Am at the DMV - 70
Explication: Intersexual - 72
Biographies of Hands - 73
Sandhill Crane Information Session - 74
Conversation with My Student, James -75
Letter from Thomas Beattie to the Media - 76
Dear Gender - 78
Elegy - 79
Gendered Offerings - 80
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Woman by a Therapist… - 81
My Mother’s Hands - 82
As a Woman Sometimes Does to a Man - 83
Unlearning the Body with My Grandfather - 84
Acknowledgments - 87
I
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Boy by the Umpire… - 3
Self-Portrait, 1984 - 4
Letter to Brian Nelson, Who Chanted Boy or a Girl, Boy or a Girl… - 5
In Second Grade Robby O’Reilly Punches Me in the Eye.... - 6
Boys in Trees - 7
The Monkevs - 8
Self-Portrait, 1986 -9
Elegy -10
Kimberlv - 11
It Has Always Been Frankie Cossinelli - 12
Tits - 14
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for the Delivery Boy… - 16
About Ben - 18
Gesture Toward Seeing It Coming - 20
Remembering a Full Moon, Threaded 21
Dear Gender - 22
II
Butch Geography - 25
When the Dead Ask for Maps - 27
Wedding Photo, 1968 - 28
Dear Gender - 29
Poem for My First Girlfriend - 30
Poem for My First Girlfriend - 31
Prince, the Androgynous - 32
If I Were a Man, She’d Be in Love with Me - 33
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Man by the Cashier… - 34
Coming Out in Porch Light - 35
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Man by a Waiter… - 37
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Man by Security Personnel … - 39
What It Means to Inherit - 41
What the Fire Teaches - 42
Dear Gender - 43
Choke - 44
III
In the Womb - 47
Dear Gender - 48
To a Woman Who Has Never Been My Lover - 49
XY - 50
Love Poem to Androgyny - 51
Fixing My Voice - 52
To a Woman Who Has Never Been My Lover - 53
At a Rest Stop in Central Pennsylvania, a Man Chokes Me… - 54
Reading Stone Butch Blues - 55
Talk Show - 56
Penis Envy - 57
From Laramie - 58
For Tomboys - 59
A Poem in Response to Those Who Argue That… - 60
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Man by a Pregnant Woman… - 61
Dear Gender - 62
IV
Butch Defines Feminism under the Following Conditions - 65
Changing the Names - 67
The Clownfish - 68
The Kind of Man I Am at the DMV - 70
Explication: Intersexual - 72
Biographies of Hands - 73
Sandhill Crane Information Session - 74
Conversation with My Student, James -75
Letter from Thomas Beattie to the Media - 76
Dear Gender - 78
Elegy - 79
Gendered Offerings - 80
On the Occasion of Being Mistaken for a Woman by a Therapist… - 81
My Mother’s Hands - 82
As a Woman Sometimes Does to a Man - 83
Unlearning the Body with My Grandfather - 84
Acknowledgments - 87