THAT VERY NIGHT

THAT VERY NIGHT

1
That very night it became clear to him that I’m a man
a heavy man with strict countenance
whose talk is mixed with strange dialects
and until now when he was touching me otherwise
he was wrong.
I’m a man.
So he saw. for he was used to calling me “she”
all those years.
Together we’ll go to the store
and buy matching hats
and speak to each other
in thick voices.
 
2
Now that it is clear that I’m a man
it turns out that I’m the father of my children
and their growth was in a father’s womb
warm and hairy and tearless.
Children, call me mother
and when I speak to you I’ll try my thinnest voice
bonnets and aprons I’ll continue to embroider
with my large fingers.
Children, call me mother
even if the milk froze at the tip of my nipples.
 
3
All the words I’ve written till now –
a man wrote.
Once I thought they were like a woman
swelling and shrinking with the seasons like her.
It’s not so.
They were straight and set, void of curves.
When a girl approaches them
with a confident arm, they’ll embrace her
and she’ll open wide.

THAT VERY NIGHT