Daphne DiFazio
Against Horsexe: An Essay On Transsexuality
Do you know how much electrolysis costs?
I wasted a whole state of myself trying to save.
My first face. The series of claims at stake
when trans women speak of the hours
spent pulling redness to our cheeks—
the liquid force of grief. Life after life
after failing to bridge future and past.
That the claims barely wear, outlasting
the gated secrets I’ve kept in genesis—
just to watch angels die with their language:
portraits loded by heavy exhale. My next
face. The future beaten to impossible shapes.
DAPHNE DIFAZIO is a poet, performer, and recent graduate from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she was an OMAI–First Wave scholar. More about her and her work can be found at daphnedifazio.com.