Content warning: mentions of sex

A bisexual’s ode to pegging

the Oxford Dictionary defines pegging, well peg – noun, as,
a short pin or bolt, typically tapered at one end, that is used for securing something in place, hanging things on, or marking a position
as in trying to fit a square peg in a round hole
or verb, form a fixed opinion of; categorize
as in I didn’t peg you for a bisexual

Cosmo or Vice or urban dictionary define it as
something else

ode to that something else
ode to too much information
ode to the audience members googling the term
ode to something I should be ashamed of
ode to pleasure come shame
ode to that Broad City episode everyone talks about
ode to a thing often called straight but somewhere in between

I feel you deeply
an act that deserves a poem
but everyone leaves you in the bottom drawer
when the missionary position poems go on the top shelf
and the erotica poetry slams always have one guy bragging about giving head but there’s never any poems about you

someone says they didn’t peg me for a bisexual and then asks
whether being with someone of the opposite sex means you still
desire what they can’t provide
and there’s not enough lube in the world to help
take that question into my body any easier

you labelled a gateway to homosexuality
or just a straight kink,
you’re the in between act,
the switch that turns me on

you deserve an ode
because I only write odes
to the things that I silence in myself,
because queers tell me it’s still straight,
and straight people tell me it’s gay
and isn’t that just one rubbery metaphor
for being bi right there?

when I take you from my bottom drawer,
I’ll hang you from our front door like glittery gay Christmas wreath
promise to never clear my browser history
after shopping for your apparatus

I ask whether pegging is queer enough
if I am queer enough
but I am queer enough
therefore you are queer enough
and I only need to feel that deep in myself to prove that

About the artist

Annie Solah is a spoken word artist, producer, convener, videographer and critic based in Melbourne, Australia. Her work has appeared through Cordite Poetry Review, Overland, Going Down Swinging, Write About Now, and SlamFind. They’ve also appeared at events in Melbourne, Texas, and New York and were part of the first Australian team to compete in the US National Poetry Slam in 2017. Annie is the Director of Melbourne Spoken Word and a co-producer of Slamalamadingdong.

Photo by Erik-Jan Leusink on Unsplash.