W is for
We. |wē| (n.)
are simply souls loving souls.
We. are bodies becoming fluid; becoming river
Us- the lot of us, sliding through fine lines
That separate abstract things too sacred to be named.
Neither woman nor man.
Just holy stain. Just queer as clockwork orange. Just lovely in our mess.
‘Cuz love was a spectrum. And we were light. Flying. Everywhere.
S.
S is for Self-Love. |ˈˌsɛlf ˈləv| (n.)
They say the I is the center of our sociality. We begin with I’s and from there we jump out of ourselves and we see: soul in another. And we love it madly.
It starts with self-love and when we’ve learned to love ourselves, we soon learn to love others. Then, when we’re lucky, and I mean really, really lucky: we learn to let others love us.
H.
H is for Hala.man. |ˈhælæmæn|
(n.) colloquial for Asexual (read: someone without sexual feelings or desires).
(Adj.) pertaining to individuals who lack the capacity for attraction.
(Clarification: Lack of capacity to be attracted does NOT equate to lack of attractiveness.)
Used in a sentence:
Halaman ka kung nangungulila ka sa tamis ng init ng araw bagamat di mo maunawaan ang init ng katawan.
Halaman ka kung di ka naaakit pero marunong kang magmahal.
L.
L is for Lesbian. |ˈlezbēən|
(n.) Homosexual woman.
(Adj.) pertaining to homosexuality in women, to lesbian
Lovers,
In love,
And loving.
(We are women loving women. And it doesn’t make the loving any less.)
Origin:
19th century. Greek (You got to love the Greeks sometimes): Lesbios.
Derived from Lesbos. Home of
Sappho: (name)
Formally: a Lesbian poet. Informally: someone Awesome.
Other definitions:
We love, lesbian.
I think it- awesome. And you can’t put a time stamp on Us
I think: it isn’t a formality.
I think: it isn’t something you can trace back to a particular point in time, or space. It isn’t physical that way.
But it’s partly chemistry. Purely electric.
I think: It begins with a pulse, which she made into a poem.
Free verses containing wild love. (Don’t you love that oxymoron?)
Kissing softly. (Like sweet fools)
This is how we are in our romance.
Is it any different from yours?
Used in a sentence:
I think: it isn’t. Lesbian love is just love (if love can simply be “just” anything)
-So drop the signifier.
G.
G is for Gay. |gā|
(n.) homosexual male.
Man loving man. (Read: Beautiful and messy, confusing in the best of ways, gloriously frustrating, painful, jealous intimate, honest, prone to bicker, banter, sweet sex, longing gaze. I don’t mean to generalize but: Aren’t all sorts of love this way?)
(adj.) Light-hearted and carefree. Happy. Pertaining to Homosexuality.
Informal, relatively modern: something foolish. (??) I think they had misplaced this. Should’ve been in
Antonyms: (though perhaps, love is foolish, love makes us all fools, perhaps, this is what they meant by this, when they laugh at men wearing pink like the mature individuals that they are, when they point to flamboyant, heart-bedazzled things, and say (in the vernacular): Gawd, that is sooooooo gay!).
Let me tell you what I’m not:
I am not a descriptive to be used derogatorily. (I am too cool, too soul, too Beauty for this)
I am not: sin.
I am not: mistake.
I am not: pathological disease, infectious- contagion.
I am not a diagnosis.
I am not something to repair, correct or counter-condition.
Synonyms:
Let me tell you what I am:
I am lover if you let me be.
I am kissing when no one’s looking,
Kissing passionately more when someone is.
(There is no shame in this.)
I am silence when you need me to, warm shoulder to cold ear
I am stubborn just because there are certain things we have to fight for: our love, our lives, the right to pursue both) And I will persist with this fight despite the safety in my gun,
I will fire. Because I am flame and I can’t help it.
I love like flame.
Are you any different?
B.
B is for Bisexual. |bīˈsekSHo͞oəl|
(adj.) pertaining to bisexuality
(n.) Individuals attracted to both sexes.
i.e. Those with the capacity to go both ways, for spine to bend, for soul to twist in either direction.
In other words (informally): One flexible motherf****r.
Used in a sentence: You see, I think Darwin missed something when he noted our adaptations. It doesn’t end with bifocals and bipedalism, pretty soon everyone will realize the value of Bisexuality.
As evolution.ary.
S.
S is (also) for Straight. |strāt|
(n.) Conventional.
Informal, colloquial: Heterosexual: Men loving women and vice versa.
Used in a sentence: They say straight cuts like a cheap shot, same way convention kisses like sarcasm. But it isn’t always the case. Sometimes, the best way to move forward is to go straight. In line and in love. There’s really nothing conventional about it. Only magic, only sweet escapades, only tenderness in old bickering. Only plots that look the same but none of them are predictable. I’ve heard about this love before, but it feels new every time. That’s the holy, that’s the miracle: the novelty in old tropes because beating penchants make them so.
N.
N is for Nonconformist.
(n.) a person whose behavior or views do not conform to prevailing ideas or practices
Used in a sentence: Love is nonconformist. It’s subversive.
More examples:
It doesn’t fit inside a mold. It doesn’t wear pink or blue or skirts or jeans just because it has to. It wears whatever it damn well pleases.
It doesn’t know what to call itself. It never liked the fit of labels. The taste of convention in its mouth. See it had always kissed like punches, wrecking habit. It is nameless and ageless. Timeless and shameless. Sexless. Like essence.
Because it knows: Gender isn’t certain (amidst a lot of other things). It’s a daily construction process we unwittingly place upon ourselves. And when one ceases to build anything, one cease to tear anything down when society requires one to build something else- when love requires one to renew.
And love is renewal. It is a revolution, a rebellion, it is aggressive submission. The best oxymoron. The best of all possible both’s.
See, didn’t I tell you?
L. is (amidst all things) for Love. |ləv| (n.)
Love is a spectrum.
And we are light. Bending, never breaking. Nonconforming.
We are light, loving everywhere.
