Poem: "Type Integrity"
This poem came out of the February 2021 ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fuzzyred. It also fills the "Hydrangea - Thank you for understanding" square in my 2-1-21 "The Language of Flowers" card for the Valentines Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with ng_moonmoth, fuzzyred, and zianuray. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.
"Type Integrity"
It was the supervillains
who looked at type falsification
and came up with type integrity.
They determined that empowerment
came through finding the role that
was right for you, instead of being
pressed into the wrong box.
So it was the supervillains
who saw desperation where
the superheroes saw only duty,
and who thus came to the rescue
where superheroes never would.
The man who always ended up
in charge by default was finally
invited to follow a capable leader.
The girl pressured to take pre-med
was coaxed into following her dream
of becoming a mechanic, and then
turned out to be a gizmologist.
The genderqueer ace who had
been pretending to be cisgender
and heterosexual was at last able
to see their true self and slip into
something more comfortable.
So many others were encouraged
to throw off a false role and free
themselves from expectations,
empowering themselves
to find their own path.
It was the supervillains
who saved them from things
when the superheroes didn't
even notice they needed saving.
The wild things understood
that being tidy and tame
wasn't always a good thing.
They knew how crushing
expectations could become,
that sometimes you had to be bad
in order to be good to yourself.
Some of them were supervillains,
not because they were evil, but
because they were too indelibly
themselves to pass for "normal."
The rest of the world might
think that superheroes were
the height of integrity, but
it was the supervillains who
walked away from everything
with nothing but their inner truth.
Where the world would not
give them a place to exist,
they took it by force and
made places of their own.
Some of the people they freed
went their own way, but others
followed the supervillains
whether they actually had
powers of their own or not.
Some of them just sent
a bouquet of hydrangeas
with a notecard that read,
Thank you for understanding.
* * *
Notes:
Prolonged Adaptation Stress Syndrome is what happens when someone pretends to be something they're not on an everyday basis. It is exhausting and soul-eating. This greatly contributes to the high level of mental illness in the trans community or autistic burnout in the neurodiverse community. The best treatment for PASS is simply to be yourself.
In the language of flowers, hydrangea means "Thank you for understanding." This is used more in Terramagne than here; florist shops there customarily have a flower dictionary for shoppers to use, and the most common sentiments appear on cards. For a little extra, you can get your message custom-printed.
crowdfunding Creative Jam. It was inspired by a prompt from fuzzyred. It also fills the "Hydrangea - Thank you for understanding" square in my 2-1-21 "The Language of Flowers" card for the Valentines Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by a pool with ng_moonmoth, fuzzyred, and zianuray. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics."Type Integrity"
It was the supervillains
who looked at type falsification
and came up with type integrity.
They determined that empowerment
came through finding the role that
was right for you, instead of being
pressed into the wrong box.
So it was the supervillains
who saw desperation where
the superheroes saw only duty,
and who thus came to the rescue
where superheroes never would.
The man who always ended up
in charge by default was finally
invited to follow a capable leader.
The girl pressured to take pre-med
was coaxed into following her dream
of becoming a mechanic, and then
turned out to be a gizmologist.
The genderqueer ace who had
been pretending to be cisgender
and heterosexual was at last able
to see their true self and slip into
something more comfortable.
So many others were encouraged
to throw off a false role and free
themselves from expectations,
empowering themselves
to find their own path.
It was the supervillains
who saved them from things
when the superheroes didn't
even notice they needed saving.
The wild things understood
that being tidy and tame
wasn't always a good thing.
They knew how crushing
expectations could become,
that sometimes you had to be bad
in order to be good to yourself.
Some of them were supervillains,
not because they were evil, but
because they were too indelibly
themselves to pass for "normal."
The rest of the world might
think that superheroes were
the height of integrity, but
it was the supervillains who
walked away from everything
with nothing but their inner truth.
Where the world would not
give them a place to exist,
they took it by force and
made places of their own.
Some of the people they freed
went their own way, but others
followed the supervillains
whether they actually had
powers of their own or not.
Some of them just sent
a bouquet of hydrangeas
with a notecard that read,
Thank you for understanding.
* * *
Notes:
Prolonged Adaptation Stress Syndrome is what happens when someone pretends to be something they're not on an everyday basis. It is exhausting and soul-eating. This greatly contributes to the high level of mental illness in the trans community or autistic burnout in the neurodiverse community. The best treatment for PASS is simply to be yourself.
In the language of flowers, hydrangea means "Thank you for understanding." This is used more in Terramagne than here; florist shops there customarily have a flower dictionary for shoppers to use, and the most common sentiments appear on cards. For a little extra, you can get your message custom-printed.