“We move through our career stiffly, step by step
like in a Noh play
with masks, shrieking song: Me, it’s Me!
Whoever’s defeated
is represented by a rolled-up blanket.”Tomas Tranströmer, The Gallery
Hello. How’s everybody doing?
We want to talk about genitalia and we want you to listen.
Mostly we are men, and we’re trying to talk to you.
We can pretend to be other people if that will make you love us more.
If you laugh through your nose, that means you’re not sure.
Laughter is love.
Our glasses fall off and our hands shake. We forget what we’re talking about,
even as we’re talking about it. We squint at the light.
Then we remember what we were talking about. Thank God!
We were talking about our genitalia.
We can pretend to be other people and we can speak in their voices.
Especially if they’re foreign, and have an accent.
We can’t see your faces, and can only hear you if you laugh.
We might ask you a question. If you answer, we make fun of you.
We want you to answer anyway.