A forbidden plumage a host of androgens
uncoiled in my blood, my uterus is a sterile field
a strange inheritance burgeons from my chin
hirsutism met with a blue ribbed gillette’s uninformed
strokes, the hairs curling back on themselves, a growing
irritant in the skin like any wild animal
a beard should be in tune with its surrounding environment
be sure to train the hairs toward a downward movement
wash regularly until this becomes second nature cleanse
condition moisturize repair bring the beard to heel
a tamed wildness of its own making half-man half-woman
or a crosshair of anatomical difference hyperandrogenism
I know the kind of disgust I am or am perceived to be but
here in this place I learn to care for it thick tendrils softened
by Cantu, impressed with such flaw such gorgeous monstrosity
Disorder
by Jari Bradley
Jari Bradley is a black genderqueer poet and scholar from San Francisco, California. Jari has received fellowships from Callaloo, Cave Canem, and Tin House. Their work has been featured in the Huffington Post, and is listed by Blavity among "15 Creatives in the Bay Area You Should Know." Jari's work has also been published or forthcoming in The Adroit Journal, Callaloo, Hot Metal Bridge, Nomadic Ground Press, The Virginia Quarterly Review, BOAAT Journal, and Punctum Books’ Anti-Racism, Inc: Why the Way We Talk About Racial Justice Matters. Jari has an M.A. in Ethnic Studies from San Francisco State University, and is a recent MFA candidate at the University of Pittsburgh. They currently serve as Poetry Editor of the University of Pittsburgh literary magazine, Hot Metal Bridge.