Calculus-Tired and Gender-Unfriendly: A Poem

Most Definitely My Leg Hair

I write in verse because I’m falling asleep.

My Calculus final this morning made me weep.

Simple statements are all I can make.

I can’t think hard anymore for goodness sake.

It’s been a while since I wrote any shit.

I was just thinking about the hair in my armpit.

Just staring at my leg hair while I sit.

I decided that I’d write a bit.

What I wanted to say was a short little rage.

That if brave enough, I would shout from a stage.

Of one of the ways I am put in a cage.

I can’t think of anything else that rhymes with cage.

What I wanted to say was simply this.

I am not “gender non-conforming”, “gender fluid”, or “cis”.

Gender labels are things I wholeheartedly shun.

I identify with none, not any, not one.

This is because gender identity doesn’t truly exist.

So save your breath. Don’t read me the list.

People are creating boxes to break boxes that I diss.

The irony of it all just has me pissed.

My leg hair isn’t an expression of gender.

Though it makes me a “hairiest woman” contender.

I didn’t choose my leg hair, it’s just part of my genetic race.

If more women didn’t shave, you’d see that was the case.

I grew to be a woman, and with that came body hair.

I didn’t grow to be a man, and this is a case that isn’t rare.

A woman with leg hair, well how do I dare?

When this is healthy, natural, and normal, how is your question fair?

But back to my point, about the gender I reject.

For which I’m writing bad poetry so very direct.

My problem with gender is that it’s not real.

It’s not an objective label, it’s simply how you feel.

Gender isn’t what you are, it’s what you choose to be.

That’s fine for all I care, but don’t force it on me.

As if I have one, cause I assure you I’m gender-free.

And that isn’t a gender in itself, it’s just what I be.

My sex is definitely female, biologically so.

My XX chromosomes still let my leg hair grow.

Despite the social norms that tell them "no".

And to hell with people who don’t want it to show.

Loving my leg hair, really took me a bit.

Social pressure really got to me and it hurt like shit.

I’m not an exception to have leg hair, you know.

Hispanic women often have black body hair, often even on their toes.

I don’t shave my toes either anymore, by the way.

I don’t find it at all embarrassing to say.

My body fought me, growing hair upon hair every day.

I finally decided to respect it and let it stay.