LGBTQ+ Poem: AN ANSEXUAL’S TRUTH IN THE STARS, by Sarah Selena

Grandfather took me out to a nearby field when I was just a wee nipper.
He swayed from
side to side
whilst I marched with purpose,
the large telescope being dragged a mere inconvenience.

We stopped in an open clearing.
He took a swig, I took a breath.
Follow the moth to your destiny, he told me,
pointing at the constellation shining brilliant in the sky.

Don’t you mean to say, “like a moth to a flame?”
I stood on my little toes, seeking the constellation he mentioned.
No, child, follow the moth to your destiny,
Grandfather urged, nudging me towards his line of sight.

Don’t you mean to say, “be the master of your destiny?”
Grandfather pointed to the sky once more, his finger shaking like a leaf.
Follow the moth to your destiny; it’s in the constellation!

I peer into my whisky glass,
as grandfather had once done, trying to decipher those words once more.
I soon learned, after his passing, the part about the moth to my destiny
Was nonsense.
However,
I never stopped believing my destiny lay in the constellation.

They told me I would find the constellation I was seeking
On someone else’s skin,
when the moon illuminated the love we’d make.
Every spot, freckle and scar would be revealed
and would form the constellation to my destiny.

I’d laid on my back once,
while I felt someone else’s skin on mine.
Where I thought there’d be stars and pulsing light,
behind my closed eyelids there was none:

I do not feel desire.

A lonely star I then was-
Cygnus the Swan’s flight led many straight to me,
whilst Perseus and Andromeda were all around me,
their love written in the northern hemisphere.

A lonely star I still was
but a pulsar-
Tendrils of energy shooting out to spread my love
while also shining brilliant within myself.
I had no one but myself to love:

The master of my own destiny.

The sound of the lock twisting
draws my attention away from my whisky glass.
And, there you are,
with a smile brighter than the sun.
I stand up, drawn to you:

Like a moth to a flame.

I could not follow the moth to my destiny
Nor was my destiny on someone else’s skin, or in the skies:
I found my constellation shining brilliant in your eyes.