Mx. Potato Head at the Gender Swap Meet
"On February 25, 2021, Hasbro dropped the honorific in the brand name and began marketing the toy simply as 'Potato Head,' while retaining the individual characters of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. However, several media outlets misinterpreted the announcement as stating that all Potato Head products would henceforth be gender neutral." —from the Wikipedia entry on Mr. Potato Head
At the yard sale where no one pays, they come
to dump their cast-offs: the sequined jumpsuits
that jived with gender just once, the fast fashion
shoes size 11 (because what drag queen has money
for Manolos & she wouldn't wear them to the sticky-
floored gay club if she did, henny), the 90s
button-downs (all colorblock & embroidered
polo players on the breast to worry the raised edges
of top surgery battlescars-in-the-making) &
the zines on brewing bathtub estrogen.
Imagine if we could switch body parts
as easy as clothes, like the Potato Head family:
My mammoth mammaries for your phallus,
ma'am? Your biceps for my muffin top?
Your Adam's apple & jutting jaw for my smooth
cheeks & cavernous pit of pleasure? Instead:
a black derby hat for a plastic pearl necklace,
a stick-on mustache & blue sneakers for a pink pony
purse & purple-lidded falsies—your grandpa-sweatered
cottagecore for my fashion school failout eclectic.
& so many bandanas in every color
of the hanky code that you could jump into a pile
like raked leaves & smile for a chosen family
photo to go on the mantle of your childhood home.
Like the school pics & glamor shots you wish you had—
the ones that show who you've always been.
