Book IV

Emilia Phillips

Woman always settledon me like snowon warm ground. Briefly.Some mayflytender. But my body’s weirderthan archetype, morepulsed thanperfection. If I had beenmarble, I would havelost interest. Who says Adam’s manlier?Who became my nicknamefor God.I also called himWhen, What, and Where.Why just twoof us? Why does Adamhave nipplesif he can’t providefor his children?How do I unsillya never-askedquestion?How do I make silencemy gender?

Feature Date

Series

Selected By

Share This Poem

Print This Poem

Headshot of Emilia Phillips

Emilia Phillips (they/them/theirs) is the author of four previous poetry collections from the University of Akron Press, including Embouchure (2021), and five chapbooks. Their poetry, creative nonfiction, and book reviews have appeared widely. They are an Associate Professor of Creative Writing in the Department of English; MFA in Writing Program; and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at UNC Greensboro.

Cover of Nonbinary Bird of Paradise by Emilia Phillips

Akron, Ohio

University of Akron

Nonbinary Bird of Paradise shakes its tail feathers, reveling in a body that cannot be contained in gender binaries. Its opening sequence re-imagines the Judeo-Christian Eve as a queer person who, instead of eating of the proverbial forbidden fruit, conjures a femme lover: “God made man / in his own image, / so they say. / So I made a beloved / in mine,” she says. Eve’s power triggers a jealous God to manipulate Adam toward behaviors of toxic masculinity and to exile the two humans from the Garden of Eden. This retelling, accompanied by other retellings of classical and biblical narratives, indicts the ways in which religion and myth have created and buttressed compulsory heterosexuality. Elsewhere in the collection, Phillips delights in the autobiography of their imagination, the rendering of self after self after self. “Would you stay // & watch me,” Phillips asks in the titular poem, wondering if the beloved will deem them desirable, even though they are masculine without being a man, “even / though / I have no blue velvet / skirt or ruby-raw / throat?”

Poetry Daily Depends on You

With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.