This feature, chosen by Guest Editor EMDASH, is from I Can Tell You The Version That Will Make You Take My Side by J Brooke (Driftwood Press 2026).
OUT LATE
So yeah, I know it feels late
telling you this I mean sure
me having had a trans kid—
pretty grand omission right?
Hear me out on this particular
elephant room-sauntering—
it’s not like K appeared trans
all his life just different to me
in a takes one to know one way.
Really mostly we were flipping
pancakes, carting K & his sibs
to basketball, soccer, jujitsu, art
music lessons same as any other
attempting non-dysfunction fam
with queer parents navigating
difficult weekend fathers and K
adamantly hetero before lesbian
-leaning finally realizing he was
he so we jumped right in helping
transition along the way sourcing
gender affirming medical care
ushering K through changing
his legal name birth certificate
driver’s license passport under-
wear hoodies socks watch razor
shave cream deodorant hair gel
nose piercing even warranting
a shift. I admit having post-op
post top surgery squeamishness
changing his drains, thankfully
his brother A, trained as EMT,
rescued us both, so I got away
only double knotting trash bags
filled with blood-soaked gauze.
K asked me to edit most family
and childhood photos he looked
not masculine in, so I cut them
up tiny before igniting in a fire
pit fire burning K’s old bras too
as we celebrated ashes tangoing
across our lawn while Sia sang
Chandelier loud out of the blue-
tooth speaker K knocked over
reaching for his third Herradura.
Wild joy like that night needs to be
protected, so I tuck it tight. Bind it
close to my heart—never risking it
being diluted by a big gender stew.
National Bestselling author J Brooke’s (they/them) debut poetry book, I Can Tell You The Version That Will Make You Take My Side, received a starred Kirkus review, is a USA Today Bestseller, is included in Ms. Magazine’s Best Poetry Books of 2026, won Driftwood Press’s Editor Choice Award, and was Ashland Press’s 2025 Richard Snyder Prize Finalist. Brooke’s other honors include Pushcart & Best of the Net nominations, The Iowa Review’s 2025 Nonfiction Prize Finalist, Columbia Journal’s 2020 Nonfiction Prize Winner. Their work appears in Electric Lit, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, Harvard Review, and elsewhere. They are Poetry Editor at Trans Poetics Archive and the Book Reviews Editor at The Rumpus. They can be found at JBrookewrites.com.
EMDASH a.k.a Emily Lu Gao (高璐璐) (she/they) is a poet-who-also-writes-fiction, educator, and daughter of Chinese immigrants. She writes to heal, grow, and decolonize. They’ve received support from LAMBDA, McCormack Writing Center, Sundress Publications, Bread Loaf Environmental Writers Conference, The Chinese American Museum of LA, Jersey City Arts Council and more. She has learned as much from community organizing and open mics as she did from her Rutgers-Newark MFA in Poetry. They’re published in Poetry Northwest, ANMLY, Alocasia, Underblong and elsewhere. She proudly hosted, produced, and curated The Word Bookstore Open Mic for two years.
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