i am not my label

recently

i’ve been trying to find

labels for identities that already exist

and these things

do not seem to come in one-size-fits-all

if i can

pull the word on over my body

and wrap the connotations around my mind

it will certainly be called

unacceptable

non-normative

it does not fit into

neat and pretty little boxes

multiple choice answers

or census questions

until a through e are revised

to refer specifically to our dna

how is there a response

not based on personal perceptions

i would not care about labels

if i wasn’t always asked to wear one

male or female

black or white

gay or straight

we are being ripped into pieces by

a cut-and-paste society that doesn’t

understand these categories are not binary

we are not computers

we are not machinery

there is an infinity of possibilities

between one and zero

and until we find the variations

between light and darkness

we will never see in color

how can we live without ever seeing

a rainbow

i would not care about labels

if i wasn’t always asked to wear one

if i didn’t have to try to

stop the questions

ask and

i will tell you poet

i will tell you friend

i will tell you lover

ask and

i will paste these labels to my chest

over the letters of my own name

ask and

i will tell you that labels don’t matter

because we can always peel them off