the art of appropriation

Coming out

By Mikala Kekoa (created by yours truly, of course)

The art of coming out is hard to master;

so many things seem filled with the intent

to be out that their out is a disaster.

 

Come out, just a little bit every day. Accept the fluster

of judgamental looks, the years badly spent.

The art of coming out is so hard to master.

 

Then practice coming out farther, coming out faster:

truths, and loves, and who it is you mean

to be. None of these will bring disaster.

 

I came out to my mother. And look! my last, or

next-to-last, of three loved words came to me.

The art of coming out is not too hard to master.

 

I came out first to myself. And, vaster, to

some people I love, two friends, a teacher, a girl.

I came out to them, and it wasn’t a disaster.

 

—Even coming out to you (with your joking voice, your funny

gestures I kinda love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident

the art of coming out is not too hard to master

though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

 

 

Based on “One Art,” by Elizabeth Bishop