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      April 11, 2016RockingClaire Blotter

      I was married, and I was divorced.
      I had three babies. I never had kids.
      I never had sex. I had sex.
      It seemed I never had sex,
      that I was never divorced
      nor even married.
      It seemed that the three babies
      who grew to adults
      were never really mine.
      I never “had” them, and
      the sex it seemed someone else
      had, when I remember it now.
       
      I was never married nor divorced
      nor did I have any children.
      I never thought to have them or
      simply never had them.
      I had plenty of sex though
      and sometimes, sometimes
      simultaneously, I had love, too,
      that frightened me, that I pushed
      away as if it were a dark alley
      rather than a garden of light.
      But sometimes I allowed a few
      white gold strands to pierce
      the dark burnt blotches
      of my heart, replace dried
      branches of pale pink geraniums
      with life. Yes, love restored me,
      and coupled with sex, made me laugh
      till my whole body shook.
       
      Looking back, I was a man once, then
      a woman, then a man, and a woman again.
      I came simultaneously as myself, laughing.
      Was this tantric, shape-shifting—
      or shifting gender identification?
      No, I was the darkness of my heart once,
      then great rocking laughter of light.
      I was the baby and the mother
      at the same time.

      from #51 - Spring 2016

      Claire Blotter

      “I have considered myself a feminist poet since teaching Feminist Journal Writing in the Women Studies Department at San Francisco State University in the mid-’80s. I experiment with non-hierarchical forms and adapt Gertrude Stein’s non-linear use of repetition and the continuous present. Rhythm, sound and a deep connection to the earth are all important elements of my work. Finally, I use the dash as Dickinson did perhaps to show the possibility of many diverse realities at any given moment, a less fixed and certain punctuation than the standard period.”