I write poems for kids
That too often get asked
“are you a boy, or a girl”
Because they are the only ones who
Will understand the physical rush
Of empowerment versus discouragement
In their guts
The question that verifies
You have finally broken gender norms
Unhuman.
Floating in unearthly genderless celestial bodies
“are you a boy, or a girl”
Only to hit the ground faster than falling stars
When told
“you better fucking start acting like it”
I write poems for kids
Who have a bird cage for ribs
And fish for a heart
Raised on its ability to fly
Look kid, you gotta learn how to swim away
Because you’ll be question by bird keepers
Until the day your veins are able to run upstream
You’ll leave the closet to only join the zoo
So enjoy the field trips
And the bears, and the otters
And learn to question the birds and the bees
It’s okay to only want birds on birds, bees on bees
It’s okay to want to try anal.
And it’s okay to want to stay as far away as possible
To think about sex at sixteen and keep that sweet composure
One day the reflection on the glass isn’t going to match
The second grade smile behind it
Frame yourself however you may choose
It’s okay to have purple hair
We all make mistakes
Don't feel guilty for being too scared to tell your mother
Your whole life, people have been trying to build you in the wrong direction
They aren’t going to understand what it feels like
To simply just wear
Eyeliner,
I understand, it’s war paint
Or the kind of questions you’ll get all afternoon
“are you a boy, or a girl”
Your identity is not polarized
Gender is a spectrum, not a just penis
There’s shades between the seven colors I fit in
Recognize you’ll be lonely eight days of the week
There’s no one like you at home or at school or work
So step out of frames,
Look at bigger pictures
Every hallway is your catwalk, every shoe
Can be your empire state stiletto
Every slut, faggot, slur is compliment to the human anarchy inside your bones
Your human anatomy matched with the way your mind things
Is one of the greatest forms of activism
And if you ever go through an emo phase,
Be the baddest goth child you can be!
I write poems for kids
That fall between “boy and girl”
I write poems that I wish I heard as a kid
To tell kids to keep fighting
Even though the war is not yet won
There’s victory in every battle you tired