Whilst Walt Pretends to be Naked, Emily Wears….

after Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

Sometimes you can hide in plain sight—
refuse to go to church—to convert, refuse
to conform to the current orthodoxies—
maybe you don’t want to—wear a gender
like it is a definition—not fit into a listable
category. As he—like a politician, is being
—one with the common man—like someone selling
snake-oil. She is putting on innocence—or
the mad woman in the attic—he claims
kinship—with strangers—whilst he lays down
his railroad tracks across stolen lands— 
she is—giving—permission to a woman
—she loves—to be—oneself
whilst wearing innocence as a door.