I Get Creative

Last night I did something I haven't done for years: I shared a piece of my creative writing. While I do a lot of writing just about every day, I had taken a loooong break from writing the poetry and experimental short fiction that once flowed freely out of my pen.But it was a friend's birthday, a friend who was quite pivotal at a particular moment of my journey exploring identity, self, and creativity. In his honor I decided to resurrect this piece and rework it. I read it aloud at his celebration.And now I present it to you.This is dedicated to all the mixed-race, alt-sexual, gender blurry people, & everyone else who finds that "check only one box" doesn't work for them.1.41421...After years of dichotomous choices leading into an adulthood surrounded by pairs, I begin to identify with the square root of 2. Beyond the visible Between what is whole On stone tablets and papyrus it arises A secret so unsettling it warrants murder proofit is irrationaluncountable frankly: unwelcome but  realMy own ethnicitysexualitygenderrole triggers murder legislation demands for proofMy ownethnicitysexualitygenderrole only fully encompassed by the square root of 2 more than 1 a numerical quirk which multiplied unto itself is the perfect sum of my parents' love.On my own: a conundrum which cannot be entered into a census' computer fouling up the simple and harmonious duality of an endless 0 1 0 1 0 1 on off yes no either or black white make a decision declare yourselfmy self tumbling along the square root of 2's digital extensions ever changing and ever endless slipping like a ribbon between whole numbers elusive but flirtatious enough to maintain interest a mathematician's dark-haired mistress I am at home in the space between integers an orienteer given a compass of genetic codes with endless variation following the decimal point of my birth without discernible patterns coyly evading resolution.Now I see I will never be fully content or at peace.No, that's not it. I will never be done.and the square root of 2 and I will hold a place in the rational world nonetheless.--------------------If you want to know more about the history of the square root of two, read the Wikipedia entry