LGBTQ+ Poem: Wire Girl, by Atticus Combs

As a child, I was made of wire
Crooked arms, crooked teeth
Crooked smile

I practiced my face in the mirror
Lips pulled tight, eyes forced wide
Never quite right

Bent, pulled, straightened
I was molded under the steady hands
Of everyone who was more right than me

As a child, I was a wire girl
Small and quiet and dressed up
A princess on Halloween

I am not a wire girl
Bent because I am
Not because I am forced to be

My smile does not sit perfectly
Yellow-toothed and crooked
A snarling boy who plays in mud

As a child, I was a little boy
Wrapped in pink barbed wire
Dressed up and hateful for it