Growing

Living with dad was never easy,
He wanted a normal family.
But what even is normal? Straight couple, with kids who
Would never do wrong?
The kids would be the kids
Their parents wanted them to be?
I at least try to be the "normal daughter"
I wasn't influenced by anything on the internet.
I didn't have any electronics.
We didn't watch "gay" movies,
We watched the straight white families and they
Had a mom and a dad, and two kids
Is that the normal he wanted?
Jokes were made to"tom boy daughter"
About how she will never live
Up to "what her mother wanted".
When we would visit dad's side
Of the family a lot more "jokes" were made
They called me slurs.

They called me a "DYKE" and others I'm sure
I don't need to mention.
But "she" never thought of it,
"she " started cutting "her" hair short
Saying "Mommy I look like a boy and I like it"
"She" tried to like boys at her school
Only to be attracted to one singular person.
"She" acts like she likes the boys
Just to be closer with her mother.
The son, young and still confused
On who he wanted to be, shows signs at an early age

That he isnt the "normal" child his father wanted.
The name calling and the slurs
Get worse and worse for him.
He is forced to go on trips to prove his "masculinity"
Forced to look at girls
And tell what he likes about them,
He goes along with it hoping
one day it will stop.
Years later that one happens, it stops,
For good at least inside the family.
He faced the kids at school
He had to face the world to be who he truly wants to be
That one day will be a day I will never forget
It causes sadness but also releif,
"He's gone and nothing bad can really happen to us right?"

We asked our mother, seeing the tears in her eyes,
She notices a huge change in us.
We wore what we wanted,
And we liked who we liked and it didnt't matter
To this dayour family might not
Be your normal but to us it is.
A mom who cares and will give her life for her kids
A SON that has always felt like a boy but
Couldn't put it into words,
And a son who is happy with people
He likes and dislikes, he is free
I am free. WE are free to be
Who WE want to be.