Translated from the Portuguese by Hilary Kapalan


woman is a construct
she must be

woman is basically meant
to be a residential complex
all the same
all plastered over
just in different colors

i in particular am a woman
with exposed bricks
at social gatherings i tend to be
the worst dressed

i say i’m a journalist

(woman is a construct
full of holes

leaking

cosmo is the ministry
of trash talk
excuse me
they don’t write about shit in cosmo)

you are a woman
what if you suddenly wake up binary and blue
and spend all day turning the lights on and off?
(do you like being a brazilian woman?
do you like calling yourself virginia woolf ?)

woman is a construct
makeup is camouflage

every woman has a gay friend
it’s nice to have friends

all her friends have a gay friend
who has a wife
who calls him fred astaire

it’s too late to change this
the psychologists at cafe freud
look at each other and laugh

nothing will change –

nothing will ever change –

woman is a construct