nobody gave us the map
because nobody had been here before us
in quite this configuration
we made it up as we went
the way you make up a language
when you need one
and none of the existing ones
have a word
for what you are to me
i have loved you
in ways the forms don’t have a box for
checked other
and meant it as a kind of glory
we are not the love story
anyone wrote the ending to in advance
we are the draft
that kept revising itself
toward something truer
than the original outline allowed
pansexual
polyamorous
the words arrived after the feeling did
the way names always come late
to things that were already real
i am a woman
who became one
on her own terms
in her own time
and you are rooted in yourself
so completely
that the ground around you
has changed its composition
we did not ask the rules
if we were allowed
we just kept showing up
in full
to a life that had no prior record
of people like us
choosing each other
like this
and calling it
exactly
what it is
—lyra moon (we checked ‘other’ and meant it as a kind of glory)
june 9, 2026