Poem: A Gestational Father on Seahorse Day!

You were stuck

Inside of me

They had to free you, as you kicked my ribs to get out

They cut you out of me so you could breathe life

Some shamed me for it

Saying I was somehow less than all women

With their actions, or lack of actions

They are afraid to stand in solidarity

to this day

Yet there you were a beautiful and perfect newborn

At my breast, you drank my milk

I was never your mother

They are now the ones stuck

They need you to free them a new generation

They cut me out of today’s celebration

so they can believe their binary myth lies

They still shame me for it

Too ashamed to mention my name for fear they would be shamed for it too

So they, oops, and conveniently forget my existence

When just yesterday they met me with a smile and a hug

They still say I am less

With their inaction

They still say I am less than a woman

Less than human and because of their misogyny I am less than a man, too

Intersex erasure hurts

Even if I know it’s your Cultural Dysphoria

You hurt me today

My baby, you have grown up now

Beautiful, and still perfect in your human fallibility

My breast made you grow strong and smart

Some call it liquid gold

Yet, I was never your mother

I am a seahorse dad

A gestational father

A hermaphrodite man

&

Today my kids celebrate

me and see me!

By Mx. Anunnaki Ray Marquez

May 8th, 2022

For Happy Seahorse Day on Mother’s Day

~.V.~