“How do you identify”?

I unhinge my mouth to answer but no sound comes out

“How do you identify”?

I identify as fire

NO.

Not like the fading flicker of a lighter

But like a hell mouth where parents, strangers, and politicians get to condemn my every action deemed

           too much,

                    too bold,

                           too loud,

                               too dangerous

when they want to say

             too queer.

                     too foreign.

                               too alien.

                                     too challenging to the status quo.

I identify as fire

A great howling pyre where ghosts of past selves are sentenced to be executed but always

extended second chances at metamorphosis.

But first, they must be purified.

Liberated to move beyond the social restrictions of this world

I identify as fire

NO.

Not like something that can be squandered but like the sun

Bright. Full of life. Capable of germinating seedlings of hope. Sustaining saplings of love.

Birthing entire forests of possibilities.

Fiercely protective

Equally capable of immeasurable destruction

Capable of scorching everything in my wake

“How do you identify”?

I open my mouth to answer FIRE and all that comes out is DYKE.

Because to me

they’re synonymous

One begets the other

Hence why I hold myself and

Sometimes my lover|friends-friend|lovers

           We hold each other and cry

                                  And dance and cry

                                           and sweat and cry

                                        and bleed and cry

                          and pray and cry