Emdash AKA Emily Lu Gao

Penelope the Platypus

The zookeepers know nothing about me. Like that I never had any interest in my
Intended mate Cecil, or any male platypus. That my one true love Cecilia is in

Australia. That my sweet potato body doesn’t ever like to be pet. That I go by Pen
Because I love writing—never Penny. That I am not named after Homer’s character,

Despite how we share a hobby of fending off suitors. And zookeepers. They’re still
Butthurt about my faked pregnancy last year, convinced I did it for “double rations”

When I was simply bored. Time Magazine said I’m “one of those saucy females who
Like to keep men on a string.” That they felt “duped” by my behavior. I mean honestly,

They’re right—but it still feels shitty to be accused when you’re the one forcibly living
Inside a tacky enclosure humans call a “platypusary”: another man-made quagmire.

That I didn’t desire a “platyposse” search party when I disappeared, twirling into the
Night at Henrietta Hudson. They claim I “abandoned” Cecil, that my jailbreak was why

He lost his appetite, causing his “death by heartbreak.” Gimme a break. We were two
Platonic platypi roommates crated and shipped like Ty Beanie Babies to The Bronx Zoo.

You know, there used to be three of us: my dear friend Betty died of a cold shortly after
We arrived in America. Rattled, I decided I’d concoct a different fate. So I escaped,

Infiltrated Delta Airlines with aplomb. I’ll return & paddle with Cecilia past the lovely
Smell of soil, moss & mildew. No more artificial coos, fake leaves, or meaty latex hands.

Our bills bump when we kiss, our eggs I’ll call sugar eggs. I miss the crickets chirping
By the streambed, the kind parasites crawling over my rum-colored fur, the cicadas

Singing Shania Twain’s “That Don’t Impress Me Much” one only the fauna can hear.

Emdash AKA Emily Lu Gao is a neurodivergent poet, writer, educator, host, organizer, and daughter of Chinese immigrants. Her writing is published in sine theta, poetry.onl, Kissing Dynamite, The Bellingham Review, Queer Rain, Mochi Magazine, The Rumpus, Split Magazine, YLWRNGR and elsewhere. She has performed at The San Diego Art Institute, ACLU San Diego, Sunday Jump, Unnameable Books and more. She credits open mics for tuning her voice and appreciates her fully funded MFA in Poetry from Rutgers-Newark. An avowed SoCal girlie, they now live on Munsee Lenape Land (“Jersey City, NJ”). When not writing, she is likely watching drag, 璐璐, or telling one too many jokes. Find out more on emdashsays.com. Any/all pronouns welcome.