No (New) Man’s Land

His is
a life in fluid drawn,
pushed through
scar tissue, muscle yielding.
Pull. Plunge.
Inject. Extract.
New man by
needle-born in flush
of mid-life puberty, 
bending forty
years of life.
Burying facts that
fail to fit.

Re-gendered.
Regenerated.

His is
a life of paradox,
thread of contradictions
traced in
scar tissue. Wrong
body to body-wronged.
Dream of wholeness
birthing hybrid-being,
fleshed-façade suspended
from the scaffold
of what used to be.
Obscuring what is
and what is not.

The past can be
dissembled or distorted
for the world,
but never
denied or desired
by those who learn
his truth.

Joseph Schreiber @roughghosts is a writer based in Calgary, Canada. He is Criticism/Nonfiction editor at 3:AM Magazine. His reviews and essays have been published in a variety of literary sites and publications including Numéro Cinq, Minor Literature[s], RIC Journal, and Sultan’s Seal. He also maintains the literary site Roughghosts. 

Banner Image: “Light” by Robert Frede Kenter. Tweets at @frede_kenter