in the late summer of a state on fire
they prepared for my birth
with buttercream guns
or glitter, in the streets where kneeling
on necks the blue
horsemen snuffed another dark breath
they drove, masked, to the mall for plastic feet
to spear into frosting,
in the dry wind they dreamed
of lures or lace, of my two choices
under an orange sky
as I slumbered normal in the blood-rich sea
as ash fell on the green courses
as I grew into my ultrasound assignment
they directed the baker’s hand, putters
or pearls, rifles or ruffles,
the sugared script
radiating pink and blue, Los Angeles sunsets
round the clock now in the summer the kindling
lay in wait for the revelation of bullets
or ballet, they set out
the knives on a blanket in El Dorado
Ranch Park and the white cruiser
of the sheet cake did say
buck or doe, cut to know,
cut to explosive footage of a color
not reported with the ten thousand
acres burned, and they walked out of there alive,
a color the pyrotechnic choice of
badges or bows, badges or burial,
and the news would not expose their names
as I was exposed, the ultrasound
technician’s pen circling flesh
or its absence. my gender is fire.
Jendi Reiter is the author of five poetry books and chapbooks, most recently Made Man (Little Red Tree, 2022); the story collection An Incomplete List of My Wishes (Sunshot Press/New Millennium Writings, 2018); and the novel Two Natures (Saddle Road Press, 2016), which won the Rainbow Award for Best Gay Contemporary Fiction. Their novel Origin Story is forthcoming from Saddle Road Press in 2024. They are the editor of the writing resource site WinningWriters.com.
