”When I Was Straight” — a poem for #Pride #amreading #remembering

To commemorate Pride, I thought I’d post my poem “When I Was Straight” from my collection by the same name, published by Insight to Riot Press in 1995. While it may seem like it might not be as difficult as it was in the early eighties when I came out in my early twenties, being part of the LGBTQ community is still vitally important to me. For one thing, being a lesbian taught me how to be different. And being different is vital in being ourselves.

The poem is recorded below on YouTube and pasted below that. Enjoy and Happy Pride!

When I Was Straight

by Janet Mason

I went through a spate of sportsfucking, insisted on

being on top, and wore spurs on my heels;

I wore three shades of eye shadow, blue, brown, green,

sometimes lavender, and still couldn’t see straight;

I embraced my mirror image in the toilet basin, seat up;

I worshipped the sun and passed out from the hormones

in my birth control pills;

I went to a Halloween party with my clown of a boyfriend,

a stuffed sock bulging in my jockey shorts;

I said, “I don’t ask you to swallow my snot,” and

afterwards gagged in the sink anyway;

‘I tied a slip knot and tried to pull my head through;

I dressed up like a Martian, mauve stocking

distorting my face, and still didn’t feel at ease;

I dined on amphetamines and swallowed Valentine

chocolates whole;

I bought myself a spiked leather wristband, and snored

while my lover used it on himself, inside out;

I burnt sarcasm to a crisp on the tip of my tongue;

I poured beer into my bird whistle, trilled it onto

my boyfriend’s shirt, then tipped the can again;

I swerved toward headlights on the wrong side of the road;

I dreamt of locked boxes and wings and one morning

scratched my shoulder to find the stiff spine of a feather.

Happy Pride!

My most recent novel is available on the publisher’s website: CINNAMON: a dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom | Adelaide Literary Magazine (adelaidebooks.org)

and on amazon.com: Cinnamon: A dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom: Mason, Janet: 9781958419786: Amazon.com: Books

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”Moo River” — #amreading from a new #novel CINNAMON: a dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom

This is an excerpt from my novel Cinnamon: a dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom published in the Spring of 2024 by Adelaide Books (Lisbon and New York). The recording of the reading is below on YouTube and the text is pasted below that.

My cows were free, and I felt freer. 

Cinnamon and Spice were in the back of the field with their calves trailing behind them. They had been impregnated before I started the sanctuary and their calves had drunk their mothers’ milk. Both of their calves were female, so I didn’t have to build a fence for a separate area for the males. But I might do that in the future. 

Helga, who ran The Cow Sanctuary and who was helping me, mentioned she has a separate fenced-in field for the males and that’s something I might want to consider in the future. As the cows finished their treats, they looked up at me with their big brown eyes. 

“You had your treats. Now you’ll have to wait for feeding time,” I said. 

The cows backed away. It wasn’t the first time I had the feeling that they could understand what I was saying. I walked up the slight incline toward the gate. Big blue squares sat on pallets next to the barn. Bales of hay were covered with a blue tarp. It was work that usually I would leave for Jimmy, my farm hand, but now that I had been vegan for several years, I felt stronger. I had more energy. Besides, Jimmy was off this week. I decided to get a hand truck and bring the bales of hay into the barn myself. 

Just as I was walking over to the hand truck leaning against the white cement wall of the barn, I heard a car turning into the drive. The sound of tires on cinders was followed by the gravel spurt of another car. I looked up and saw that they had arrived. It was Dr. Holt, the large animal veterinarian, who I had come to know as Jean during recent months. She was a steady customer of my partner Ainsley’s home-cooked vegan meals. Fortunately, I hadn’t had to visit her recently for any of the cows.

 She had the rest of the group with her. They lined up at the wooden fence and began singing. Every song they sang had the word moon in it. Just for fun, they dragged out the word and said “moo” instead. They sang “I’m being followed by a moo;” “Fly me to the moo;” “Moo light serenade” and ended with “Moo River.” In the short time that they had been singing, the cows gathered in the middle of the field and looked up at the group expectantly. 

“I noticed that Cinnamon and Spice and their little ones came from their corner to listen to us,” said Jean. She beamed at me. I beamed back. 

She had saved Spice’s life. I wondered if Spice remembered. In many ways, Dr. Holt – I mean Jean – had set me on my journey that began with knowing others became attached to their cows also. Knowing that others felt this way too, made it okay for me.

This is Janet Mason reading an excerpt from my recently published novel Cinnamon: a dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom (published in 2024 by Adelaide Books) for YouTube and Spotify.

My most recent novel is available on the publisher’s website: CINNAMON: a dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom | Adelaide Literary Magazine (adelaidebooks.org)

and on amazon.com: Cinnamon: A dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom: Mason, Janet: 9781958419786: Amazon.com: Books

Happy Pride!

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Saving a cow and writing a novel — #HappyPride #govegan #amreading

In honor of my new novel being published—Cinnamon: A dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom—by Adelaide Books (Lisbon/New York), I thought I would bring you the story of Sacred the cow, the actual cow who inspired this novel and changed our lives.

Just this morning, my partner Barbara and I went to a friend’s hose where I found a copy of my novel Cinnamon in this friend’s reading pile. This was before I received my author’s copes, so it was the first time I saw my book in print.

Five years ago, I met our late cow friend Sacred when she was a dairy cow. Knowing how the cows were (mis) treated and then slaughtered after they were done being milked, caused me to go vegan (I also experienced major improvements in my health).

A group that my partner was involved with was able to rescue Sacred and send her to live at The Cow Sanctuary where she was able to live out the rest of her natural life. Here is a short video of Barbara singing Sacred’s song (which Barbara wrote) at The Cow Sanctuary. Sacred knew and responded to her song.

My most recent novel is available on the publisher’s website: CINNAMON: a dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom | Adelaide Literary Magazine (adelaidebooks.org)

and on amazon.com: Cinnamon: A dairy cow’s (and her farmer’s) path to freedom: Mason, Janet: 9781958419786: Amazon.com: Books

Happy Pride!

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