Five Poems, The Wrong Order by Ari Glass
Poem Number 1: The Wrong Order
They messed up my order,
I'm not a girl.
I must have someone else's body.
The fit is all wrong,
too tight and too loose,
too long and too short.
At church I wear this body that isn't mine and I smile like it is,
because that's what's expected of me.
Yet, I know that my Heavenly Parents love me as their child,
not as their daughter.
Poem Number 5:
The words are a pin prick in my skin,
in my heart.
If you are calling me she,
you don't know me
you only see my body.
She, she, she
and
I can start to feel myself bleed.
They, they, they
and
I can feel myself start to heal.
Poem Number 2: The Bathroom I Sit In
Who do you think you are
To tell me what I feel inside.
Because last I checked my brain wasn’t in my uterus
And last I checked my gender wasn’t in my ovaries.
But my gender sits within me
It isn’t defined by the bathrooms that I use
Or where I sit on Sundays.
I get to decide who I am
And I get to decide how I present.
Poem 3: Gender Soup
I know God doesn’t make mistakes,
But I think perhaps They read the recipe wrong.
You see, they gave me a female body,
But I’m not a female.
My recipe was supposed to be for a body
That was mostly void of gender,
But with a dash of masculine features
And a sprinkle of a feminine face.
I’m not a female,
I am a demi boy
A semi gender
A hemi girl.
An agender soup.
Inside this female body.
So I don’t know why God made me a female body,
Knowing that it wouldn’t taste right,
But They made me.
They made a demi boy
A semi gender
A hemi girl.
An agender soup.
Inside this female body.
Poem 4: Palm Stories
I can’t tell you about the future.
I have not seen it
And I can’t tell you about before,
Because I do not remember
But I can tell you that love is not dependent on gender.
I can’t tell you about the future,
Because you are yet to write it.
And I can’t tell you about before,
Because that is your story,
But I can tell you of love so tender.
A love so tender that they made you,
Made you trans
Made you intersex
Made you gender diverse
Made you to stand out,
To love out
To live out.
