ripen.
in the garden you can find me,
delighting in Eve’s fruit,
basking in my Gayness,
basking in my Gayness.
neither here nor there,
I’m Eve and also Adam,
basking in my Theyness,
basking in my Theyness.
the land of milk and honey,
that is where I’ll be,
as I bask in all my Gayness,
as I bask in all my Gayness.
for the spell has now been broken,
Behold, I’ve been set free,
as I bask in all my Theyness,
as I bask in all my Theyness.
though the grass may wither,
and the flowers fall beneath me,
i will revel in my Theyness,
i will revel in my Gayness.
silence me they shan’t no more,
a Phoenix grew their wings,
as I rise up from the ashes
beyond the apple tree.
for a mango seed was planted,
it’s fruit will surely blossom,
as i ripen in my Gayness,
as i ripen in my Theyness.
the deliverance they spoke of,
was a tree that bore no fruit.
Eve may have bit the apple
but we know Adam tried it too
my oppressors in the distance,
cling tightly to their book.
my soul begins to sing a song
to soothe my every nook.
gayness
gayness
gayness
gayness
gayness
gayness
theyness
theyness
theyness
theyness
theyness
theyness
what the serpent failed to tell them
or whisper in their ears
was the essence
of a mango
ripening
all these years
~
Whit Easton, raised in the PNW, has called California home for almost a decade. They are a writer, editor, poet, storyteller, and identify with numerous letters of the queer alphabet.
The Los Angeles Press 