No cat is transgender.

How do I know?

They can all find boxes

to fit comfortably inside.

The first box

which does not fit

is the estimated gender.

To transgend is to leave this box,

and for some that is enough,

but the comfort of cardboard

calls us all.

So we look out

at the boxes the world reluctantly gives.

"If that box didn't fit you,

would you like the other box?"

And for some, again, this is enough,

but comfort is hard to find

in a well-worn box not built for you.

So some part of the world

offers a third box,

hastily labeled "them",

and again, some are content.

But a box labeled for the world

to name without understanding

may not fit all equally well.

The world, then,

can find no box for us,

so we make boxes of our own.

But a box can be used

not just to label, but to divide,

and so these boxes grow

tedious and constraining too.

A box for those who left

that constraint of default gender

for pain, not mere discomfort,

would do no harm were it not

invalidating all other reasons.

Some of us build boxes to appeal

to the broader world,

but a name is not acceptance,

and respectability is a fool's errand.

We accept the boxes we are handed,

or we build our own and dig moats around them.

I have been wandering

in search of a box for myself

for so long now,

and I'm so damn tired

and I would like

to curl up

and take a nap.

And if there is

no box for me,

then I must rest

on the cold,

hard

floor.