"Coming Out to my Dead Grandfather as Having Ken Doll Hubris (Ken, Limitless)" by L. Amariti

There’s a hopeful part of me that thinks you love me more than you need to understand But I know you because I’m the same as you, Kindred Spirit grandpa So I’ll tell you that: Ken dolls don’t have nipples And what if he ended up that way by having top surgery, Double incision for ultimate contouring? Thus I think it stands that Ken is a transmasculine icon Loved and adored as a god because that’s what Barbie and Ken are, The deities that underscore what it means to be a person, that who we are is limitless. Thus Ken being trans stands to reify our place in the natural order And I think I’m like him in that my gender isn’t Barbie, I’m separate and me and I don’t want my nipples. In the end I’ll look like Ken, limitless But I’m still the grandkid you play ping pong with every week And this isn’t any more different than being a writer amongst a family of scientists And I know you don’t get that either So I’ll explain it as this: I never really grew out of playing with Barbies and Kens So the stories I’d give them Now take the form of manuscripts ————————————– L. Amariti called us from Voorhees, NJ. voicemailpoems.org/submit/ facebook.com/voicemailpoems x.com/voicemailpoems bsky.app/profile/voicemailpoems.bsky.social instagram.com/voicemailpoems