tomboy

Me on my 6th birthday.

I ride dirt bikes
take the biggest jumps
to enter serenity
where nothing lies between
you and the ground

I play video games
Infocom
ColecoVision
Intellivision
Atari
Nintendo
solve the puzzles
save the day

I cook
and bake
and make fancy dishes
table manners
table settings
lefties always sit together

I climb trees
and play in the mud
Matchbox cars zoom
in the sand pile
in my grandma’s backyard

I don’t like pink
don’t like blue
black is where it’s at

I don’t wear make-up
or play with dolls
I like firecrackers, worms, and bugs
and sitting for hours watching ants come and go

avoid heels
can’t walk, can’t run
skirts and dresses
are annoyingly restrictive

Society shuns me
for not being proper
not being girly
not being who they want me to be

I don’t need a dress
to be confident
I don’t need to be a cook
to be competent

I’m not bothered about looking pretty
or how dirty I get
it’s about being me
and that’s enough to change the world

Note: Many thanks to Candice Pederson for helping me clean up my old photo.