All Russian Men Are Women

Rachel Stempel

My Gogol, empty lover lacking
girth & pluck. We can outlast the trading pool
for pussy furs in flux.
Here, men have a Petrovich for every season:
only one eye’s worth of bloodmoon drenched in semen.
My Gogol, empty lover, drinking
diet pop & idyll verse.
The Russia between us is fraught.
Sibir, the immaculate frozen, arresting
our adjectives. We’re left in half-crescent, pressing
on each other’s nervy bits. My Gogol, we’re negative space.
We’ve lost our words for action, too. Our bits erased!
My Gogol, one eye’s too much & not enough.
Placating legs, the inspector calls our bluff
& we feign surprise at each other’s flatness.
General, come close! To see waxy-legged queers!
Our empty groins nationalize the glory hole.

Rachel Stempel is a genderqueer Ukrainian-Jewish poet and PhD candidate in literature at SUNY-Binghamton. They are the author of the chapbooks Interiors (Foundlings Press, 2022) and BEFORE THE DESIRE TO EAT (Finishing Line Press, 2022). They live in New York with their rabbit, Diego.