Snippets from Sex Education

I should expect looks & questions
when I walk up to the cashier
with 15 zucchinis and
2 boxes of condoms

Or when I talk to the librarian,
requesting as many books as
possible regarding erotic & nude
art of antiquity

But I forgot
how repressed people are
How well trained they are
at avoiding s. e. x.

Some of the students in class
do the, “look at my zucchini;
it's bigger than yours?” cliché
as the rest of us roll our eyes.

We talk about the reality of
sex and bodies being political,
especially when art or justice
or race is part of the equation

The nonbinary student who,
for 6wks, after class, tells me,
“Thank you for including me &
other people like us again in class today.”

Everyone laughs
at comparing the asking for consent
to the offering of & making
someone tea,

But they also squirm
when bringing up
being forced to kiss
Nanna or hug cousin Tom

I slowly start to break through
their already fucked up
binary influenced ways of
thinking, living, & fucking

Spectrum, spectrum,
Rainbow
Spectrum, spectrum,
Rainbow

But my teacher always divides
the class into Girls & Boys.
And I say, “Your teacher is
wrong…clearly.”

But my parents have always said,
“Boys have pensi-es & Girls have vulvas.”
And I say, “Your parents weren't taught that
bioessentialism & the binary are wrong.
But now YOU know better.”

“You mean, I don't ever
have to have sex if I'm
not into that sort of stuff?”
No, there's way more to
life than s. e. x.

-----
originally read at The Bridge Series' “Spring Fling” poetry night, April 24th, 2019