To the boy in my German class who critizised me for picking a male name instead of a female one.

I wonder how your head will ****
When you see your best friend Joey
Become Johanna

I wonder how your jaw will drop
When you see your son
Beg to be bought a dress

I wonder how your ears will suffer
When your daughter
Shows up at your home with her girlfriend

I wonder if you will care
You called me crazy
My name is Dirk

My name is Gender Roles
If you are born a female
I come with
Flowers

I come with
Barbies and pink accessories
I come with pink kitchen sets
and doll hair brushes and fake makeup

I come with pink
I come with pink
I come with pink
I come with pink

I come in fusha
I come in burgandy
I come in lilac
I come in white

For the added package
I come with liposuction
and days without food

I come with too tight clothes
and more labels than you can count
I come with kitchen jokes

I come with being judged if you
had ***
or
Haven't

But wait there's more

If you are male
I come with toy trucks
And remote controls
I come with not crying

I come with blue *****
And Sunday football games
And rough housing and be a man

Be a man
Be a man
Be a man
Be a man

I come in Testosterone black
I come in beaten up blue
I come in Grades don't matter green
I come in what're you looking at white

For the added package
I come with teasing
Required gym time
Peer preasure
Don't cry

I come with straightness
And close minded friends
I come with video games
I come with make the money

Pay for dinner
Pay for movies
Pay for living
Pay for squirming

I come with physical torture

Critizised
For having ***
or
Not having ***

My name is Gender roles and I come in a school room
My name is Izzie and I'm alive
My name is Christy and I'm crying
My name is Dirk and I am satisfied

My name is Gender roles

The colors of the sky
They vary, so wild
One base color
A light, calm blue
O what a wonderful hue
We are all someone's child
And at one point or another, we all cry

The other colors of the sky
I know not why
But there are so many
Things moving, fast as the spinning of a penny
Purple, yellow, orange, green,
Red, pink, white, blue, black,
Electric blue, maroon, indigo,
Violet, scarlet, gold, navy,
Aqua, mint, burgundy,
Fusha, midnight, cream,
Neon pink, neon green,
Neon blue, neon yellow,
Any and all colors you can think of
Moving up there, before my eyes
I tell no lies

These shapes, lines, and things I see
O, how can they be?

Somewhat faded
Some more pronounced
They came in, unannounced
It looks like some faraway place was raided
And the loot was spilled into the sky
I know not why
But it simply is

Circles, squares, rectangles,
Squiggling lines, moving all about
Things that resemble amoebas
Looking almost like oil and water mixed on a sidewalk
About this strange thing, I could talk
For so long
Is it so wrong?

Something so wonderful and obscure
If there were one, I would not want a cure

Some see them
As I do
It appears to be a field with a gem
Up above me
But what about you?

- Jay M
February 5, 2020