If creating the collage at all is problematic,
Then I stand guilty with the rest of you.

But few are truly under the illusion
that it is the template that is at stake;
It's the contents.
Your intentions don't pass.
I hear there are tips for that online.

Gender may be evil, but I have one.
I am every man I have ever loved,
Every wise and older mentor.
And I am a part of me so young
I forgot he still lived,
Someone locked away
From puberty on.
Age thrown violently out of orbit.
The cashier at the movie theater
Asks for ID.

And I am every man I have loved
in a way forbidden between men,
Every flat plane of chest I longed for
in a monstrous way.
Be him or **** him,
A game I used to play.
Heteronormative, the lot of us!

Gender is indeed constructed,
And none of us are spared.
Am I to be blamed
For seizing the trowel
Before the mortar dried?

It's ironic,
Considering the language
Of those most threatening to us,
That the only public spaces
where we can take care of
our most basic of human needs
in complete safety
Are labeled "Family."