My performance

Continuing on trying to write everyday for pride and what my gender and sexuality mean to me, or how life has presented its perspective unto me.

Are you a boy or a girl?

It takes me a moment to respond

I wonder, was my performance not enough?

The fabric of my yellow silk dress

wraps around my breasts 

my legs bare in the cold air

naked 

to the night's dark affair

I wonder was my performance not enough?

What does it matter

your eyes still bear the same weight 

After all, to you

I'm just another body

to be used and discarded

Tell me, was my performance not enough?

Reviews

[Aura]

This was an emotional read, it hurts when people focus on superficial things like the gender instead of the importance of the topic at hand, which in this case is a performance. It casts shame and doubt upon the person. Were they not good enough? Why are they asking about a gender? Its truly the work of a history of humiliation and anger towards a group of individuals which is the cause for these questions.

[Richard Knox]

Jojo, this is a powerful, emotional poem; more so because it describes and comes out of experience that is foreign to me, yet I can clearly feel the pain, the humiliation, the confusion and the bitterness you express in just a few lines. Self doubt is a constant companion to most of us, it just wears different clothing, and is often accompanied by its insidious friend, the need to please.