mk zariel

am i gay?

asks a buzzfeed quiz, but sometimes the more accurate question
is whether i could pass a turing test after
cramming and thus starting to feel less alive. can statistics have genders?
asks the inner voice that has already resigned himself
to being a fundraising item for a nonprofit, a black-and-white
photo adorning a copied and pasted
decidedly uninspirational email. can i watch mainstream news with you
 
and a mute button and subtitles? i don’t want to hear about fascism
if it can’t one day become erasure poetry. i’ll text you a thinkpiece
about preventative counter-revolution and it will be dry
and uninteresting—like every last tweet of #protecting #trans #kids
when do we defend ourselves? can i watch mainstream news with you
and put fists through the television like a small child
and wonder if this will fade like my coming-out texts at 1am
when i thought there was a world to step out into?