My Friend Is

a transgender poet
that won’t publicize
sex in a 3rd person bio.

Nor will they submit
to being subjugated
by a woman’s prize.

These are their words,
carved out of alphabet
musings over lit mags

while sitting in a café
with summer pouring
people into thin shade.

Just go for it, get it
while you can, I say
sexualizing their grace.

They shake their head
and say don’t get me
started; take for example

how a poetry contest
can never be judged
without being prone

to tiny injustices like anti-
war songs inadvertently
glorifying the art of death.

We raise our dark rosé
wine and silently toast
what remains unwritten.

Garth Pavell is a New York writer and musician. His poems can be found in the recent issues of Hobart, Unbroken Journal, Wilderness House Literary Review, and elsewhere. You can find him on Instagram @garth_and_the_unwieldys.