when my brother called me a lesbian for the first time
i screamed at him in  denial
though i had already half accepted this truth,
because i knew he did not mean  
"how wonderful, you see love in women",
but, "you are other and for this you should face ridicule"

years later, ive found a temporary home in bisexual
though i dont really do boxes
but allowing myself to fall fully into the way that you move
and find solace in your crooked tooth
is a level of living i'm glad i didn't deny

how humble i feel to live amongst this art
to see humans capable of creation and caring
and not quiet the rise in me that yells
"you are lovely!" "and you are lovely too!"
and how sad i feel for those who linger in the landscape
of compartmentalization and contracts of cramped couplehood