Look What We've Come To

 

I am who I say I am

I have the inalienable right to be,

I am what I say I am

Despite what you think you see.

 

I am who I feel I am

Put that in your pipe and smoke it,

I am what I feel I am

So what you think does not fit.

 

What you see is what you see

But what I feel is what I know,

The shell you see just misleads you

Hence, you don’t have the say-so.

 

Please refrain, I beg you,

From your gender stipulation

And please see me as I see myself

Minus your incrimination.

 

It is no fault of mine

That I look the way I do,

Please do not assess me by my looks

But according to my view.

 

Keep your labels to yourself,

For you I will do the same,

Never, until you get to know me,

Must you accord to me a name.

 

Woman and man or boy and girl

You cannot determine for me,

Let me tell you what I am

Or what I purpose to be.

 

Gender can be transient

And they are myriad genders too

So, please do not get ahead of yourself

As though you always knew.

 

 

Chromosomes cannot determine

The way I eventually feel,

I may appear in the body of male

But to me that may not appeal.

 

Consider my deep-seated feelings,

I am what I am feeling,

Accept me for who I really am

And not by what you are seeing.

 

Please don’t jump to conclusions

Until you have all of the facts

They go far beyond the eye-level

And only I can tell you that.

 

I am what I tell you I am

And that may only hold for today,

Tomorrow may bring a turn around

And that may be just my way.

 

Note that I use the pronoun “I”,

You see, I am not pointing fingers

But if this scenario applies to you

Then don’t accuse another.

 

And bear in mind if you will

That life is far more than feelings

For, if we act in accordance with such,

Very soon few would be living.

 

Stewart Russell © April 2, 2022