sestina w/ dysphoria & Marilyn’s gold pumps

so this work never ends: presentation; 
the face of circumstance. a kind of cage, 
when even on nights filled with too much wine, 
image persists. in their dreams, this woman  
summons a honeymoon bare as a stage,  
naught between her and them but a diamond.  

when women like her sing, bitter diamonds  
form in soldiers’ eyes, this presentation 
a kind of plea to appear on her stage.  
they whistle and shout, each in his own cage  
of desire and distress, where a woman— 
or the suggestion of one—implies wine.  

her dimensions are guessed over rice wine 
as minds conjure her nude as diamonds 
over poker. they know what a woman  
ought to look like. there’s a presentation: 
every smile a gift, every song a cage 
she obliterates as she moves onstage.  

when women like me adopt a new stage,  
the whole audience may as well be wine-  
drunk for all the misconceptions—a cage 
aux folles where our lipstick’s cheap & diamonds  
fake, where—for the sake of presentation— 
some strive to be the right kind of woman. 

but this is how you support a woman:  
ignore the danger of rainfall onstage.  
expect hang-ups with presentation.   
never underestimate the wine, 
& always be mistrustful of diamonds  
(assume she knows how it feels to be caged).  

some birds will not flee from an open cage 
no matter how wide the door. a woman 
can hide in a quiet heart, not like diamonds 
under rock, but like seeds within dirt, staged 
to become rice or grapes and then sweet wine,  
served with a kind eye aimed at presentation.  

see—even in cages lined with diamonds,  
songbirds suggest presentation. so we find woman  
for some implies only the stage. or wine. or rain. 

GARNET JUNIPER NELSON

Garnet Juniper Nelson is a queer writer birthed & corrupted in the American high desert who now writes from the Pacific Northwest. A graduate of the MFA program in creative writing at the University of Nevada, Reno, their writing has most recently appeared in publications such as Salamander, Waxwing, Poet Lore, Ninth Letter, Frontier Poetry, december magazine, Salt Hill, & Pidgeonholes, and has received nominations for Best of the Net and Pushcart prizes. They currently teach writing at Centralia College.