The Gender Binary Won’t Stop Texting Me

24 April 2026

Hey, girl. What you been eating lately? What—— and I can’t emphasize this enough——— is your shoe size, girl? Hey girl? Hey, aren’t you—— doesn’t matter, girl. Don’t matter: no girl, three girl, five, let me give you some advice girl: drop all that girl down on my level, girl. Girl, what if I told you? There’s a place where you can have it all, girl? Girl? What if I told you every ungirl inside you could girl its way through bloody feathers, girl?

What if I could make you girl? Make you just like me, girl, just as happy, just as hand on your thigh, girl?

Come on, baby girl. Don’t say goodnight.

about the author

Haley Bossé (they/them) is a queer writer living on Kalapuyan land in the Pacific Northwest. They are a proud, founding editor of the Monarch Queer Literary Awards and guest editor of Eye to the Telescope: (Non)Binaries. When Haley isn’t writing and editing, they can be found falling in the mud, tearing up magazines for collaging, and teaching the Mycelial Writers Workshop. Their first chapbook, Aurora Comes Online, explores queer self-discovery in the age of chatbot girlfriends. Find it haunting Game Over Books .