Fiction

Tummy-flat

Sina Queyras

From Lemon Hound, a poetry collection published by Coach House Books in 2006.

The tummy-flat girls will not embrace feminism. Will not consider ecology or philosophy anything more than a brand name. They are not worried about the environment, a luxury for another generation. A pre-bubble-bursting time. They are so done with all that. They are so over it. They are so Whatever. They are so Yeah, yeah, yeah. They are so She’s so uptight. They are so She’s such a nightmare. They are so Bummer. They are so bored. They have so little time for that. They are so done with earnest. They are so PC is a university credit. They are so I wanna sit on his face. They are so I want to give head where I want when I want. They are so Isn’t sexism sexy? They are so Boys are just built like that. They are so Being gay is passé. They are so How could you be so mean? They are so What planet are you from? They are so done with the whiny girls. They are so done with political messages. They are so past any need to protest. They are so What’s your problem? They are so We’re fine with the way things are. They are so That’s just the way it is. They are so Get over it. They are so Accept it. They are so Anger is so uncool. They are so Move out of our way rigid one, and let the beautiful ones sing.

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Sina Queyras

Sina Queyras grew up on the road in western Canada and she has since lived in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, New York, Philadelphia and Calgary, where she was Markin Flanagan Writer in Residence. She is the author most recently of Unleashed (BookThug), a selection of posts from the first four years of her blog. Her work has won a National Magazine Award, her collection of poetry Expressway (Coach House, 2009) was nominated for a Governor General’s Award, and Lemon Hound (Coach House, 2006) won a Lambda Award and the Pat Lowther Award. In 2005 she edited Open Field: 30 Contemporary Canadian Poets, for Persea Books. She is a contributing editor at Drunken Boat, where she has curated folios on Conceptual Writing and Visual Poetry. She has taught creative writing at Rutgers, Haverford and Concordia University in Montreal, where she currently resides. Visit her at lemonhound.blogspot.com.


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