I.
My ******* ribcage
does not work
how it should.

II.
I can barely
breathe
without a stabbing pain

III.
"There's nothing
wrong with you"
Thank you,
doctor.

I.
I will look up to
superheros if I want to.

II.
I will call myself
Captain America
if that's what makes me comfortable
in my own skin.

III.
You are not going to stop me
because you don't know what it's like
to drown
in clean air
upon seeing your reflection.

IV.
I will call myself
Captain America
and I will thrive.

I.
******* I
am falling for him
like leaves are falling
now in autumn.

II.
He is so graceful
brave
incredible
god he's so sweet to me
and he loves me
but he called me
best friend

III.
And I want to be best friend back.
I do not want to
love someone with that
track record.

IV.
I don't know how
to say
"best friend"
to someone I want to kiss
so badly

V.
But I don't know how to kiss someone
I love
as a best friend.

I.
They asked me to write an essay
depicting the
glories of the
American Dream.

II.
I couldn't, but
I wrote three pages
easily.

III.
They were
the wrong three pages -
I told them about
Natives Americans
torn from homelands.

IV.
I told them about
police brutality,
the things going on in Ferguson,
and the media coverage of war overseas.

V.
I told them about
separation of church and state
and how that ought to look.

VI.
I told them
I'm not sure if I can write an essay about the glories of equality
in a country where
I do not feel equal.

I.
They are
sweeter
then anyone
who's cleaner.

II.
Mostly
a little drunk
maybe ******
I was sober
and they said
"Good on you"
and
"Why though"

III.
I have gotten
a hundred more hugs
and shared food
and offers of a jacket
to keep off the cold
in a few hours with strangers
who form this family
then with my own
family
and many of my friends.

IV.
I felt
so *******
safe there.

I.
I need you to understand
that when I wear a skirt
it's cross-dressing.

II.
It is not
"Going back to
being a girl"
it is not
"Accepting my femininity"

III.
It is
cross-dressing,
a skirt does not mean
I am female
again.

I.
His middle name
shall be his own.

II.
He shall
cast off the legality of
what he was given
on a certificate.

III.
His middle name will be
Confidence.

I.
Speak
a word
of love,
and you fall on
dead ears.

II.
Speak a word of
hate,
and you're written down,
as sin in a walking form.