dear parent or guardian

A body that is just beginning to define itself discovers the insufficiency of imposed language, and even though it rebels and implodes, the machinery it opposes is a shadow that extends itself, an inescapable question and—ultimately—a condemnation. In dear parent or guardian, the poet proposes a rupture with the agreement of gendered language through the transcription of memory, revealing the injustice of the norm. They who sprint freely in sweltering heat deserve to be a ninja turtle, nothing else.