Love The Semi-Colon

Here is a lesson in creative writing. The first rule: do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.

—Kurt Vonnegut, in his novel, A Man Without a Country

Maybe I am taking this quote
Out of context, and should be
As generous as my junk I took
All the way across your country
To a venerable women’s college.

Maybe I am taking my life out
Of context, never formally
Diagnosed as a hermaphrodite,
How can I claim I am one?
Let me just say I am large;

I contain a multitude.
Enough to call who I am into question.

When I dress, I am a transvestite
Every time. My sex remains undefined.
Often listed as female, sometimes
As male. Only I can define myself.
That is my first rule and my last one.

While we use nicer words now, we
Represent absolutely everything.
Intersex, drag artists, trans folx, queer.
We are a lesson in creative writing,
As life writes itself, and we are life.

Education is hard knocks wherever you’ve been;
Harder for those without privileges that should be rights.

Especially when being who you are is
Dangerous, transgressive; a death sentence.
To survive as a gender-non-conforming person:
A miracle, a celebration; scaling Mount Everest
Every day; throwing rainbow confetti; dodging
Bullets, actual bullets; avoiding the razor’s edge.

Kurt, we of marginalized genders are men
Without a country, told in micro-aggressions,
Macro-aggressions, by a world escaped
From humanity, that we have no power,
Are citizens of nowhere—but we vote.

We vote for our very lives: to end violence;
To have jurisdiction over our own rights—

Body and being. To end gun violence;
Legalize abortion; maintain marriage
Equality; make everyone safe, legal.
Division/the ultimate smokescreen
To destabilize democracy, to grab
All the goods, to destroy our Earth.

Yet, for this moment we must embrace
What we have, this living gift of ourselves,
Each other. Nature on branch and wing,
Swimming on the surface and in the deep.
The music of our sunlit, moonlit existence.

A semi-colon is a sign of hope; life continuing.
Love the comma, a sweet or suspenseful pause.
Love the semi-colon; a continuation of life.
Everyone is valid.
Full stop.

El Salvador-CECOT

In 19th century Europe,
Safety coffins employed
A cord tied to a bell

To alert of any person
Mistakenly buried alive.

Today, there is no mistake.

Today, it is up to us:
To pull the cord.
To ring the bell.

In Case of Emergency

The poetic voice has
Invisible instructions:
Crack open in case
Of emergency.
We avoid the shards, but
Some cuts are necessary.
For we work close
To the pain.
Closer than anybody.

I'm ashamed
Of my own miseries.
The shame of survival,
Of some death inside.

Still, my words flare,
Wet from my throat.

Prior Publications Credits: Diving At The Lip Of The Water, full-length poetry collection (Beltway Editions, 2023); Crack Open/Emergency, chapbook (Finishing Line Press, 2020; Blue Nib Magazine, Issue 37 (2019)