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The Pinko Commie Dyke Returns

By Julie Enszer

to the place where the idea
of being a pinko commie dyke
first entered her mind,

to where Heresies,
a feminist art journal
arrived in the mail.

Who knows how
she a fifteen-year-old
in Saginaw, Michigan

found Heresies to subscribe
(yes she supported
Geraldine Ferraro for Vice President

but in retrospect she knows
that is not what brought
Heresies into her home)

The feminists operating
Post Office Box 766
at the Canal Street Station

(many years later
she would visit the station
her step more sprightly thinking

how those Heretics trod
the same path) mailed her
Issue 20 with a list

of epithets for
feminists on the cover
culminating with

castrating bitches
commie sluts
pinko dykes

holding that issue
reading those words at fifteen
she knew who she wanted to be
Added: Thursday, February 16, 2017  /  Used with permission.
Julie Enszer
Photo by Stephan Declue.

Julie R. Enszer is the author of four poetry collections, Avowed (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2016), Lilith’s Demons (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2015), Sisterhood (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013) and Handmade Love (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2010). She is editor of Milk & Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2011). Milk & Honey was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry. She has her MFA and PhD from the University of Maryland. Enszer edits and publishes Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary and art journal, and is a regular book reviewer for the The Rumpus and Calyx. Read more on Enszer's website.

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