Poet’s Statement
Two Genders confronts the rigidity and violence of state-imposed gender binaries, exploring how official doctrines reduce the complexity of human identity into a false dichotomy. Through the symbol of the “Eagle,” the poem critiques the United States — or any nation-state — as a devouring force that polices identity in the name of order, morality, and control.
The Eagle, as a national emblem, is supposed to represent strength and freedom. But in this piece, it becomes a creature of conquest — predatory, bloated with the spoils of oppression. It consumes nonconforming identities, spits out their bones, and writes them out of history. In this framework, gender is not a personal truth but a national edict, a policy signed into existence with devastating implications for those who live beyond the binary.
The poem uses formal, almost archaic language to echo the tone of state decrees and “official” documents — intentionally mirroring how government language often masks harm beneath civility. Phrases like “official said policy” and “two words were penned” allude to legal mandates (such as those found on birth certificates or ID cards) that erase lives by reducing gender to checkbox categories.
At its core, Two Genders is an elegy for those buried by these doctrines, a lament for truth denied, and a quiet rebellion against erasure. It insists that what is true will persist — even under the shadow of the Eagle’s wing.
Two Genders
Identity is an official said policy.
Two words were penned.
Which has fallen into a deep grave of lunacy
burying shame to which the Eagle sinned.
Erasing only marginal souls,
strengthening the Eagle’s view.
Writes a sullen doctrine of binary rules
forgetting what is true.
Spitting out the bones,
the ravenous Eagle devours its prey,
its belly full of victory.
The rustic Eagle sees drab mice as stock
to create history.
The imposing Eagle still
sniffs the scent of the weary
and crushes its deepest truth
only to remain righteous in its belief
of which it will not refute.
Edict on gender crashed down as a thundering fist,
the Eagle’s flitting right wing.
To fight in truth would be a risk,
arduous jubilee songs we sing.
Dissension leaves the verging skies
with glimpses of a bleak view.
Hardening the burdensome hearts of the Eagle’s bounty
of what is known and what is true.