"Always, I must hide my true face. As my fingers work, I grip hope to me, a small bird quaking in the..."

"

Always, I must hide my true face. As my fingers work, I grip hope to me, a small bird quaking in the nest of my heart.

…

This sooty ritual is perhaps my own strange paean to womanhood. Like Theresa of Avignon, that spoiled heiress of the French throne, who shared my vows at Canterbury, the world will see me only as I intend.

It is a type of vanity: if I cannot be a woman, I will be as ugly a man as I can muster.

"

- Sinful Folk, by Ned Hayes (forthcoming in 2012)