Resting Butch Face by JP Seabright appears on NationalPoetryMonth.ca on April 3, 2023.
From JP Seabright
Resting Butch Face - background
I produced this work in June 2021 and it was first published in Babel Tower Notice Board later that summer. It’s a true hybrid - born out of a malapropism, a photo, a half-baked poem, some found text, a tweet, and a general vibe.
The tweet came first, when I remarked on another positive benefit of wearing a mask in public: “The best thing about wearing a mask is that I don’t have to hide my resting butch face in public.” (Mar 23rd 2021) Then the photo, taken two months later, a selfie whilst masked and waiting for a bus to collect my daughter from nursery. It was pouring with rain, so I have my hood up, glasses steamed, and am barely visible. Coincidentally, I’d had my second Covid vaccination that day.
Around this time, during a heady five weeks or so in May/June I was working on my first collaborative project with Jem Henderson and Jonathan Kinsman, which was published as GenderFux (by Nine Pens Press in 2022). Most of the text in this piece was one of my early drafts that I was playing around with to see if it would fit in our collaboration. I liked the idea of exploring gender and identify (and yes, sexuality) through what is visible and non-visible: how we may present ourselves in public, and what we choose to hide.
Alongside my poem on the left-hand side of the page, is found text taken and erased from an official document from the NHS on Covid precautions. It was the physicality and (masked) intimacy between human relations in the text that attracted me to it. My initial draft poem changed and responded to this text, infiltrated also by other language used during this public health crisis, such as Hands, Face, Space, which was one of the UK Government’s messages at the time.
The piece also contains references to the queer anthem from La Cage aux Folles I Am What I Am, and a reference to my daughter in the first line: Vega being the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra.
About JP Seabright
JP Seabright (she/they) is a queer disabled writer living in London. They have two solo pamphlets published and two collaborations, encompassing poetry, prose and experimental work. More info at
https://jpseabright.com
and via Twitter @errormessage.
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