Zazie

NON-BINARY

This body I’ve got on
feels like a dress size too small
And I know size changes from shop to shop
But I can’t use the changing rooms in any of them

They say your body is your temple
And I listen and I respond
Timidly tattooing
Perhaps piercing
Dying hair in whatever place I want it

And then say they no – not like that.
Your body is our temple
It’s only yours if it’s socially acceptable

And I listen and I don’t respond
And I change back my name and I grow out my hair
(only on my head) – because that makes sense
And I fade into that 9-5 TV no dinners oblivion

And then this body I’ve got on feels several sizes too big
Cos it’s not mine, does it really matter what I do to it?
And If a non-binary body falls in the forest and no-one is there to hear it (which they won’t be)
It doesn’t make a difference
Because to them – it didn’t exist anyway.

And it doesn’t matter how many burned out bodies,
Burdened by stagnant society
Continue to fall in forests, in streets, in clubs and in jobs that invalidate them (plural in this case)
Because if no-one is there to not just hear, but LISTEN, then we don’t exist. 
And that’s what they want.

So, allies: Lift this burden from our backs,
Take on every binary basin, every gendered gymnasium
No matter how small it seems
It has made us feel smaller
So fight it and hate it
Tell them non binary
Is not just valid, but celebrated.

          –  Zazie