I Think My Dog Would

The outbox is full-

Requests for documentaries and newsletters

Regarding “Transsexual,” “Transgender,” “Genderqueer”

All labels designed to break labels.

My body speaks female;

My mind doesn’t sound feminine.

What is feminine anyway?

What does it mean to be female?

Can I be a girl

Who dresses up like daddy?

Can I be a girl

Who plays with trucks?

Can I be a woman

With short hair and a bow tie?

Can I be a woman

Without a purse?

Can I be a woman

Who desires a woman?

To pleasure with touch

Without being “the man?”

Can I be a woman

Who binds her breasts

To appear not a woman,

But not a man?

Can I be a woman

Who changes her name

To sound both

Male and female?

What does it mean to be a woman?

Breasts, ovaries, vagina?

Submission, weakness?

The opposite of man?

Would the feminists, 

The lesbians, the trans

Still call me “she”

If I challenge their very identity?

Would the world

Accept this dichotomy

And consider me just the same?

I think my dog would.