Freedie The Stray, Early Gender Bender and Love of my Life, Poetry Performance at the Point Ephemere last December 2016 during Selfish Open Mic

With the kind assistance on stage of Leo Ursenbach, 

playing a Double Gender Bender version of Freedie,

the best part of the Gender Queer poem is missing

but you can uncover the mystery

in the poem itself

which...

ABRACADAMBRA

****

là voilà!

FREEDIE, THE BELLEVILLE STRAY

(EARLY GENDER-BENDER AND LOVE OF MY HEART)

The shoes were the first thing I noticed.

Italian leather, Brown and Shiny, 

Reflecting like twin fast-moving mirrors

the dirt of the Belleville streets you rode

like a Metropolitan Rider

devoted to Destiny and Love.

Then I noticed the rest of you,

every time I rode the same streets

pushed by Life.

Belleville put us together

in the same time-space continuum

and now your brown hair 

disobediently falling on your eyes,

your mute smile,

your deafness to live's complexities,

your care-free attitude

and your ceaseless flirting,

with girls, with boys, with children,

yes, your never-ending flirting indeed,

Belleville Gherubino, you lascar, 

oh yes, your flirting,

flirting with everybody and everything,

with the passing sunlight sometimes,

with me 

since a Month ago,

all this wakes up inside me 

everyday

at dawn

when I wake up.

Freedie The Stray,

Riding the Belleville Streets

like a Blind Metropolitan rider

in brown shiny Italian shoes

looking for adventure,

while destiny accomplishes itself

behind his back,

behind my back,

behind our innocent and unaware backs.

Oh yes, 

Destiny is a naughty child

and she is playing with both of us,

casually jangling with our lives,

paying as much attention to us 

as she pays to her rainbow balls

falling at random 

after she has tossed them once again

high up in the winter air.

A Month ago

I kissed the fresh mustached lips

of Freedie The Stray,

for the first time,

I placed my hand on his heart

and the other hand on his chest

to feel him better,

and in the kiss I immediately knew,

with his beating heart in the palm of my hand

and his lips locked on mine,

that I was in love with Freeddie The Stray,

blindly in love with this lost child

of poor, dirty, poetic and mysterious Belleville,

lost in love with

my blind Metropolitan rider,

all of him,

his used-up street clothes,

his crooked smile,

his mute, intense gaze,

his deep inarticulate voice,

velvet in timbre

and so childish in content,

his brown mustache 

and his brown Italian shoes,

twin shiny mirrors following him around 

in the dirty BelleVille streets.

Freedie The Stray

now holding my heart

in her hand.

Freedie is a She-rider

but shush!

not a word,

I promised I won't tell

if she kissed me 

and kissed me 

and kissed me

again.

My own Stray Cat 
Beau and Belle,

hiding in a male uniform the day,

riding the dirty Belleville streets,

with her twin shiny brown Italian shoes,

early gender-bender for her freedom,

the sexiest man/woman alive in my arms,

at night,

every night,

since my Destiny changed in Belleville

and Freedie The Stray

became my home.


(c) Haris Metaxa, Dec 2016
Dedicated to Françoise Doherty