For the life of me
I could not be sure
if the child I was playing with
was a boy or a girl.
Long hair and rambunctious play
confounded gender stereotypes
as did a refusal of the kid
to give me any real name.

As we ran around and shot aliens
I wondered how much it mattered
if he were a girl
or she a boy
And it didn’t, really,
except for pronouns.
I just didn’t know
how to refer to it.

I guess i learned two lessons
from the venture:
Number One: children can grow
innumerable ways and none of them
are wrong.
and Number Two: don’t pick up strange toddlers in the park.