Kat's Poetry Pile

Neuroqueer VI

drifting apart from who i was and who i ought to be
knowing my fate is inseparable from my identity

the intersection of neurodivergence and queerness
so preoccupied my mind many years ago
but what does that even mean now
in this day and age

you will be hunted down
the nail that sticks up gets
whacked and beaten until flush and compliant

so there is no pride to be had
in sticking out, // lest i be outed as one
of
them

an other

ostracized

because i failed to p[res ent my self
appropriate ly
professionally

im trying to keep it all together
p[ain t a coher-ent message
but the harder i try
the farther i fall

i fear that i don't pass
which means i fail
and if i fail
the conseq uences will be..

=

severe

so i cannot fail
i must pass
even if that means
fighting who i am
hammering myself into
an ap p ropri ate
form that's societally paletable
no matter how much it kills me inside

because when i return home
i will have a nail hammered deep into my brain-case
and i will not think
merely survive as i have done all
thos e year s

maybe it doesn't matter.
maybe it never mattered.
maybe i've failed on a genetic level
and i'll be mogged by every--one younger than
m,e prettier than me

and in the incelmaxxed stupid chud world
maybe that;s all there is
disintegration of identity

maintenance of a professional face
two sides of a commemorative coin the head, presentable and recognizable
and the tail which has no bearing on reality and might
as well be a modern art masterpiece

held to gether //

there's a mania that comes with writing
certain types of free-verse poetry
where i choose to break format
lose my fucking shit, and keep the damn typos

because if i forget who i am
why did i fight so hard in the first place?
sin is sin and i must repent
but i fear that it was over before it even began

blue pills red pills black pills pink pills
swallowing the whole medicine cabinet and
waking in this miserable existence

but i'm not even angry. or upset.
just torn between an authentic self,
and a presentable self
with baggage tying back to an obsolete self
and a lobotomy waiting if i fail

so yeah,
it's a high stakes game
does it even make sense? I sure as shit don't know

and maybe i never will

>I cannot, and will not change for anyone.
and yet you did. names changed, faces changed, you're unrecognizable

a different person from all the wear and tear that comes with life
falling apart already
because the consequences are catching up
and i wish i knew sooner

who i am
who i was
who i will be
does it even matter?

and maybe it's gonna be okay