กำแพงเพศ/Gender Walls.

We were hunter-gatherers from the start.

In our own way.

We learned.

Painted mascara

Like warpaint.

For girls

Or somewhere in between.

Survival of the fittest

Or the quietest.

On their terms.

The most discreet

In a storm.

I.

I.

I.

I.

I.

I.

Fittest? No.

Maybe

Out of spite

Shhh my dear

Say

So

Much

Less

But collect your proof

You are

Still here

Back to my roots.

I stored you like precious berries,

Preparing for a feast.

Or a sacrifice.

Who knows which?

Did you?

I did not

I do not

Is this sacrifice

It is

Not

Not anymore.

Now that I've

Been

Here

I heard your voice first.

In words unspoken but so

Loud.

Clear like an ocean in dawn light

And the despair of whale song

Before the harpoon flies.

And joy.

So much joy for

The wounds you learned

To sketch

Across your skin.

Your scars are my heartbeat.

I thought I could

Can your voice

Get through the cold months

There are no cold months

Anymore

We hibernate.

To keep the meat on our bones

softening

Together

We will not be

Hollow

This winter

We will

not

Be

hollow

This winter

Strength comes back

To our limbs

Like thawing ice.

Suspended and waiting,

To fall,

Your eyes

Are my eyes.

I saw them next.

Mine.

Yours.

One a darker shade of blue.

The inside looking out

On a world,

Clouded by the vision of

Them.

Them.

Them.

Them.

They are no more

A part of us

Than he

Or she

Eyes follow old lines in the sand

Lines that

Were life

Will be life

Are not life

But life like

A disjointed life

Gaps

in me mor y

But

But

Collect yourself.

Collect yourself.

You have survived on less.

So

Much

Less.

Your heartbeat is a scar.

A broken

timeline of us.

The memories that

Should have been.

Each pulse

The trace

Of the memories

We choke.

Waiting

to forget

The I

You.

Of

She.

He.

It. Unto

We.

W.

W . W.

W . W . W.

W.

W. WW ; WW .W

WWWW

W

Us.

Us.

Beats beneath our tongues.

A memory in motion.

Knowing

Nothing,

And all.

Like a sundial.

Time

Is ours.

Alone.

W.

We know where we came from

And how we stitched our roots

We.

We.

We.

Across our chests

W-

And tugged

Until they knotted around

Our lungs.

We.

W.

W . W.

W . W . W.

W.

And the rings on our broken fingers,

An ankh for

Protection.

I -ustwo-

-We.

A shield against the future

We had never planned to see.

Ours.

In this jungle we reap.

Alone.

US.