Lakelore

by Anna-Marie McLemore

A feeling that whatever words this person got assigned at birth maybe didn’t fit them either.

Gender identity never reduces down that easily anyway. Recognizing someone like you is never as simple as picking things apart to see what they add up to.

“But just so you know, I like everything about you.”

“A gender fizz.” Bastián nods. “Sounds like the next big drink.”

“When you know what you need,” I say, “what your body needs, you feel this urgency with it. That’s how I knew. Once you know the right thing, every minute you don’t do it feels wrong.”

I didn’t realize how tired all this was making me. Not just the effort it takes me to function, but the effort it takes to make it look like it’s not effort.

Once you get past the fear of being seen, you can get to the part where you know you’re not alone.

“Whatever is unnamed, this will become, not merely unspoken, but unspeakable.”

One day, I can earn back my own trust.

I wanted to be close enough to feel the pull of them like a current.

I like you every way I’ve gotten to know you

something unfamiliar but that I’m meeting with recognition.

how we had to know something for ourselves before knowing it with someone else.

No matter how a child’s brain is wired, no matter how they experience the world around them, they likely won’t think the world of books is theirs too unless someone invites

them into it. Those we trust show us the path into stories.