biandlesbianliterature:

thewastedgeneration:

!!!

[image description: a book opened to a page showing the poem “How I Became  a Lesbian” by Becky Birtha:

It’s not that you
become this way 
so much as it is
something you always were.

someone you one day realize
you are 

like the discovery
that you would have always loved

      star fruit

     

kiwis or 

     

mangoes 

only, you never knew they existed
until
you were half way through your life. 

Maybe you remember the day you
discovered mangoes
when you and a friend
fed thick, pulpy slices

into each other

mouths open in astonishment. 

Maybe you remember
your first taste—
and the startling comprehension
of the possibilities

of life in a world that included

this incredible
sweet
reality.]