Normal

The woman in the car has on bright pink lipstick And a daughter my age sits in the passenger seat. It's cold out, harsh light glinting on frost and leftover snow

Why can't you just be normal? Like everyone else? She says it like it's common sense That to be normal would make everyone's lives easier

Her daughter finally speaks Now, I'll respect your choices If you want to be called like… A guy…

But you just can't trust anyone anymore I mean, Jennifer Aniston is secretly a man. I laugh. I can't help it.

I just want to understand She really doesn't Just wants me to bend myself In knots, like a performer on stage Contorsionist of my own being

The mother is judge, jury, and executioner The gavel handed to her in the same motion of the axe Petition signings and PTA meetings

Why can't you just be normal? I wouldn't be happy living as a woman.

She doesn't know me, Doesn't know that I slide across my Kitchen dancing to Beastie Boys, Or that I have overflowing sketchbooks, And no less than eight unfinished comics

I like to have an americano every morning And my best friend steals my shoes, sees it as punishment for never tying them Which he thinks is dumb.

I wonder if she's willing to take that away from me Most people who don't understand me are I don't want to live as a husk of myself Someone already dead and walking

She has no care for me And so, because I am other I have no right to an opinion On my own health and body.

I cannot be normal When normal is about control I'm not meant to be controlled

I am a child. I am a young child who has been Forced into a dying way of life And the dead are not willing to let go

So now it's personal. The world I'll be inheriting is Ashy with smoke, Strangling us with the mistakes of Women in bright pink lipstick

I would give anything, For my life to not be up for debate On the chopping block Sitting in front of the butchers Of our generation

I don't deserve to be Questioned, poked, and prodded Simply because I want to be myself.