The Wardrobe’s Best Dressed: I Can Tell You The Version That Will Make You Take My Side by J Brooke

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).

LGB NO LONGER MY 4-LE ER WORD

Yeah I’m rans bu mos people can’ ell.
Maybe hey can ell I’m nonbinary bu mos days
hey jus misgender me “hey mam” ( hough I’m no ).
I was born his way, I always knew I was a boy
growing up bu back hen I was called “ omboy”
which a leas had “boy” in he name. Puber y
blockers weren’ a hing hen, bu sex-change
surgery was and I ried every angle bu my paren s
wouln’ buy i , so I s opped asking and grew up
wi h he wrong hormones coursing hrough me.
I looked like a sor of girl bu fel s ill so much
like a guy bu hen over ime I admi I grew o
apprecia e my female hink bu s ill, I never did
adjus o my body so I wear loose clo hing I wear
a rucker cap a lo (mos of he ime backwards)
and have never been a fan of mirrors bu I don’
wan surgery anymore because i ’s surgery… and
I have already been hrough oo much. I ’s a personal
decision o live (as I do, a “ hey / hem) and I was glad
when hose pronouns became ubiqui ous
because hen I defini ely fel more seen. Bu of course
“ hey/ hem” since he las elec ion isn’ qui e as
accep ed jus like I’m no qui e as accep ed…
Presiden rump said in his inaugura ion speech
I don’ even exis ! I was in Canada during ha
momen so didn’ hear him bu he said here are
only wo genders and hey are dic a ed by your body
a bir h. rump is mis aken on his, jus like he is
abou so many hings. He go rid of our rans flag
and he go rid of our le er “ ” in LGB bu he can’
ge rid of me no ma er wha he akes away
or how he spells ha e.

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.