The T(y)ranny by Alison Rumfitt

Since Glasgow's Zarf Poetry published Alison Rumfitt's hot pink T(y)ranny all I can think about is vaginoplasty and how problematic Margaret Atwood is.

T(y)ranny is a mix of hybrid prose and prose-poems that look at the nature of Trans Poetry and the subject of the Body within it. Insecurities, autonomy, desires - and the breaking away from heteronormative spaces in writing - T(y)ranny achieves something exhilarating and necessary. Whether it be dreams of whales, an inflamed neovagina or a (re)reading of Margaret Atwood's biologically determined wombyn.

She writes:

Poetry without the body is just prose. Prose is just poetry with too many or not enough gaps.

This is toyed with literally in "Openwound (The Neovagina is a Flower of Evil)." The spacing and holes in the text literally becoming the subject of the Trans body in pain:

                     wound              wounded      wounding    winding     waxing
waning         lyrical ballad    lyricpoetry    leftism        leninism
Lord    life    learnedmen                  blossomlikeaflowerblossomlikeaflower

But perhaps summed up best in the final title piece, "T(y)ranny (Trans Women Navigate a Handmaid's Tale Dystopia)," a carefully plotted critique against Atwood's fictional dystopian Gilead. Here, gender is strictly divided by wombs and nothing else. All other bodies are written out. Really Gilead is the ideal misogynist dystopia for transphobic feminist theorists. And for all the celebrating and political bating of Margaret Atwood the past year, I can't help but nod my head furiously and think what message is really sent out when women dress like handmaids at political rallies.

This is what T(y)ranny does at it's best. It situates our bodies politically and queers the perspective, through poetry and gaps in prose. Alison Rumfitt doesn't just write, she mutilates.