She and I² | Luke Quinn Betsey

I’m running from her,
but she follows me,
she is not me.
I have to write her name on documents
that are meant to identify me,
but I am not her.

Yet I don’t know how to explain,
the discomfort I feel in the body,
the one we were born with,
the body that is somehow mine
doesn’t feel like mine
but is also hers.

They love her,
but they don’t understand me,
they don’t understand that I am her,
and she is me.
How could they understand me,
when I don’t understand who I am?

I don’t understand that she is not me,
I am not her, she is not me.
I am he and he is me.
I can write his name to identify me,
they will love him as they love her,
because she and I are him
and he is us.

Luke Quinn Betsey is a student at Central Connecticut State University

Header Photo Credit: aane.org