- [Both] I just got a Tumblr.
I do not understand Tumblr.
- Don't really know what a 'note' is.
- Don't really like the feeling of being followed.
- [Both] By strangers.
- Why do they call them 'followers'?
- Can't we just be friends?
- [Both] I have 81 followers, mostly strangers,
and they send me messages that say,
- Thanks for the reblog, but,
- [Both] What's with all that feminist spam on your feed?
- I did not respond.
- You were so pretty with your long hair.
- [Both] Did you really need a queer haircut?
- I did not respond.
- My grandmother, who's been taking care of me
since I was a kid, found out I'm gay.
But she keeps telling me I'm just going through a phase.
It's really getting to me, what should I do?
- [Both] P.S., I like your poetry.
Phase, noun: a distinct period in a process
of change or development.
- I am seven years old and leaving a play date
from Samantha's house.
I give her a kiss on the cheek
and both of our mothers swoon.
I am seven years old and leaving a play date
from Michael's house.
I give him a kiss on the cheek, and his mother says,
- [Both] Now, that's enough of.
Phase, verb: to introduce in gradual stages.
- I was 22 years old when I began dating a woman
for the first time.
She pulled me in from the starless, darkness I'd been
drifting through and I watched as all my insecurities
burned up in her atmosphere.
Her name is,
- [Both] Phase, verb: to remove in gradual stages.
- In high school, I knew this painter.
A cocksure comet with a confident,
smarter-than-you smile that showed no signs of burning out.
A hopeful romantic, who always wanted to exchange
portraits for poems, and I'm afraid if I write him one now,
it will sound too much like the suicide note
that he did not leave, signed,
- [Both] Phase, verb, the process of waxing and waning.
- [Girl] It takes the moon 29 days
to orbit around the Earth.
- [Both] Appearing to us only in fractions
of it's full self.
Phase, verb, to illuminate the darkness.
- And what are we really ever doing?
- [Both] If not constantly trying to find a light,
when they tell you your love is just a phase,
- Tell them you do not like the word 'just.'
- [Both] You are not 'just' anything.
- Do not bury your demons on the dark side of the moon.
- [Both] Instead, phase hate out of your sky.
When they treat your love like an eclipse,
- [Boy] Like it means learning to live
in someone else's shadow.
- [Girl] Like it deserves to be black hole swallowed
because it burns too bright to look at.
- [Both] Do not let them.
- Do not align yourself with
someone else's access of expectation.
- Do not fight your own pull.
- [Both] Trust in your own gravity.
We are closer to the stars than they will ever be.
- And if anyone ever tries to tell you
that you love wrong.
- If anyone waits for you to backwards become yourself.
- [Both] Treats your queerness as anything other
than the infinite universe of beautiful possibilities
that it is, tell them that you're sorry
that they'd rather live in darkness
than learn to love your light,
learn to love your flicker, flash of radiation,
learn to love you full moon.
- [Girl] And even on the days when you hang
just a sliver in the sky.
- [Boy] When it feels like you're holding on for dear life,
to this rock, like you are in a death-grip tango
with the sun.
- [Both] Hold on.
Because I've seen people I love starve themselves
out of the sky.
- Her name is Sarah.
- Signed, Andrew.
- [Girl] My starry-eyed girl and her constellation kisses.
- My man in the moon in his ghostly glow.
- [Both] I still don't understand Tumblr,
but I consider us friends.
Thank you for sending us your secret satellite.
We promise it did not get lost in space.
P.S., we hear you, loud and clear.
(slow, dramatic music)