Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

by Andrea Lawlor

Dykes were so cool. What could be more punk than being a dyke? What better way to say fuck you to the Man?

Anyway, by the way, yes, I am a giant queer who threatens your pathetic sense of knowing anything about the world,

What was sex but newness? And sensation and conquest and intrigue and desire and romance and fantasy, and specific people sometimes, sure, but not always.

Men and women alike confounded Paul; they were so rule-bound. Straight people seemed confused by each other, so anxious to find camaraderie within their gender, so startled by differences between their bodies, always pinning explanations for the inevitable gulf between humans on chromosomes.