I am not proud of past transgressions.

I am burning over the future messes; I want to pave every road meticulously,

until every disgrace and mistake is buried in the asphalt.

I want to hide our razor blades in the dirt and the clay.

The literal and the figurative scars to be cleared away from our skin.

Could I burn down all my lustful passions for my teeth in that boy’s flesh,

just like a wolf, so hungry and dissatisfied?

Or maybe I’m a w****. It’s such a dirty word.

I want to erase it from every dictionary and every language,

so no woman ever has to be berated by that disgusting, distastefulness of a word.

I want to eradicate the idea that the people we love should be based on skin,

or whether their reproductive organs will fit cleanly like a puzzle with yours

That who we love is based on whether we are sinning. I am not sinning or sick.

Your idea of damnation is sinning.

I am not proud of our human follies or animal whimsies.

I have been taught to hate the wolf residing inside me,

to want to push it down into the deep shadows of my being.

My father told me to cover my body in habits instead of marrying a woman.

Why wasn’t I bold enough to tell him no?

Instead of shameful silence, I should have been abrasive.

Do not let others tame you or shove you down.

They’ll back you into a corner, they’ll wring you dry, drown you in your own insecurities.

Do not let them break you into a splintering, shattered mess of psyche-

let them all build you up.

Let them build you up until you’ve shattered their preconditioned notions,

their societal paradigms, their political agendas, and their ghastly deformed religions.

Break all the chains that confined you in your mistakes. We are redefining what it means to be human.

We are redefining humanity.