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?