gender neither here nor there

“Why don’t you wear makeup?”

“Why don’t you shave?”

“Why do you wear baggy clothes?”

“Why aren’t you into me—do you like girls?”

zeroes and ones he tries to decode me

I look in the mirror and see someone else.

Who glares back from the smudged glass

can vary from day to day;

Today, I’m a boy.

I worry that someone may notice

so I put a barrette in my short-cropped hair.

There. Much more believable.

I feel like I’m dressed in drag.

“Sir . . . I’m sorry . . . Ma’am?”

Others seem as confused as I am.

I don’t correct the person at the DMV

when they put “M” on my license.

the answer to the question is the wrong question







Author Details Robin Anna Smith Contributor Robin Anna Smith is a disabled writer and visual artist residing in Wilmington, Delaware. She is a regular contributor at Rhythm & Bones Lit. Her work appears in Unsealing Our Secrets: A Short Poem Anthology About Sexual Abuse, Blithe Spirit, Open: Journal of Arts & Letters, and Bone & Ink Press. She placed second in Sonic Boom’s 2018 Annual Senryu Contest and received an Honorable Mention in the 2018 Marlene Mountain Memorial Haiku Contest.

