POSE

This poem was inspired by the TV series “POSE”, about New York City’s African-American and Latino LGBTQ and gender-nonconforming drag ball culture scene in the 1980s. It really hit home for me that when the constructs of family systems, religions, and society have failed us, we are left with holding our own raw humanity.  We grieve the not belonging, and are initiated into the creative process.  Beginning, piece by piece, building ourselves together… Brush stroke by brush stroke, painting ourselves into being.  A realness that is unrecognizable by the uninitiated. This is the sovereignty known by those who have dared to not belong, and in the process, find their true belonging. 

I do not fit into a BOX
I DEFINE me
Unafraid to flaunt my ESSENCE
unafraid to OWN it
I KNOW
my most
UNADULTERATED self
I REST in this nature
CELEBRATE it
REVEL in it
I let it TEACH me
GUIDE me
I step INTO the spotlight
onto the stage the UNIVERSE has set
I move
I flow
Create
POSE
Be still and KNOW
I AM
GODDESS.