Out in a Singaporean classroom, September 1, 2021 to September 1, 2022
Poem in English
Not the student with everything to gain,
but the teacher, with everything to lose
and everyone to dream of,
alive, flourishing, breathing easy,
home to themselves,
home, truly.
Not an advocate, not an ally –
aiyoh, not so binary, please lah.
Just gay. Just non-binary.
Just here.
Like you, like me.
Like those who believe, and those who don’t.
Here to dream of better things.
Here to be kith and kin.
This is kith and kin:
these are my beautiful ones,
my straights, my crookeds, my everything in-betweens:
my heroes, my kings, my queens,
my quings of everything.
My queens, my quings, my kings;
I fought for this, all on my own,
because you deserved this.
You deserved to know
that there is a place for you
and if there is no place that you see
then you see it through
till it becomes a place
a space in time
where there is time enough to celebrate all of us,
every single one.
You are no single one.
You are a hundred and forty single ones,
a mighty wave,
a song of individuation,
a dream of a braver island,
a better world.
Better worlds have existed,
and better teachers.
Be better than me,
and braver.
Be beautiful for this mighty, frightened earth.
Be the teachers I never had.
Be the students I have loved and cherished to have
for a single year of joy,
one single one
one single voice among the stars.
Your stars now.
Your moon.
Your island, and your world.
Your home, truly.
Your everything:
a life, flourishing, a being freely –
theirs to lose
and yours, always and forevermore, to gain.