They Call It Menopause
FROM THE ONLINE CHAPBOOK FLAMINGO PARK
They Call It Menopause
Miriam Levine
A shadow moustache came on
when I reached sixty; in
some light it seemed blueish.
There were fewer tears; as for
weeping, almost never. I lost
muscle mass. My brain
lit up with fantasies in
which I was dominant, a top,
not on men but women. My
moves were cruel, thrusting.
It scared me to know this
being I called a man, this
bastard, this son of a bitch.
Now that I’m older by decades I’m
intact again, a kind of virgin queen who likes
to see the young pass by in their beautiful bodies.
Flamingo Park
Miriam Levine
2026
Flamingo Park is Miriam Levine’s gift to you. The setting of this online chapbook is the Flamingo Park neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida. The themes, for the most part, are love, death, joy—laughter and tears—the longstanding themes of lyric poetry.