“Which proves that when a person or an event comes along to jolt or appraise me I can take some appropriate action, although I am better known for my hospitable remarks.”   –Grace Paley, “Wants”

Lullaby

an effort to Pan’s lost child

you check the difference
in priss and tomboy

opt for androgyny

write early liberation songs
keeping options open

mom what’s fellatio
& where where where did you do it?

voice wanting to know
the power of sex & language

unafraid despite the city’s best effort

with fucked up shaky resolve
(what kind of revolutionary am i?)

i waiver

~~~~~

Dana Teen Lomax is the author of Disclosure (Black Radish Books), Rx (Dusie), Curren¢y (Palm Press), Room (a+bend), and co-editor of Letters to Poets (Saturnalia Books). She’s writing Shhh! Lullabies for a Tired Nation and editing an anthology of avant-garde work for children. She teaches at SFSU and Marin Juvenile Hall and lives in San Quentin.