Being gay in a conservative society is not easy. The minute we are born or come to realise our sexuality, we are thrown under the scrutiny of society. As a kid, I grew up believing that there was something wrong with me or in the way that I see the world.
I wholeheartedly believed that there was a certain logic or reality in the world that I did not, or could not see. I was fortunate, however, to be surrounded by my family and friends who supported my journey of self-discovery by picking me up at the height of my own insecurities.
I would like to share a poem that I wrote, which encapsulates a discovery that helps me grow into becoming the best version of myself. It helps me tear away from the toxic realities within a culture that denies my very existence.
It helps me rise above any pre-existing stereotypes of how I should behave or be. And above all, it helps me realise the fragility of my own reality, and that I have the innate ability to break free from the chains of my own perspective — to be constantly reborn into someone that I, myself, could be proud of.
The title of the poem is “Fiction and Nonfiction”.
Fiction, that is the world we live in.
A construct,
of the human senses.
A framework,
to make sense of perception.
It is molded by a set of rules,
imprinted from the collective history of a preordained society.What is non-fiction?
Only the naive would have a definitive answer.
For the truth is,
the non-fiction is incomprehensible;
for the absolute non-fiction,
is the collective whole of all that is fiction.The ignorant will claim to know it all,
The wise will claim to know nothing but,
their consciousness;
brought alive by their insanity to break through the limits of their own mind,
in an insatiable conquest to acquire perspective,
just for a fleeting glimpse of the impossible non-fiction.
— Meerkat