To My Fellow Two-Spirits,

Dearest Heart Beat: Your need for connectedness, your disregard for social finesse, your inability to categorize others as good or bad, your smiles at tree bark in Riverside Park, your capacity to speak with the sun in uncontaminated drivel, your supplicating moss’s percipience to find the most practical route to warm sand and waves that feather a blushing sunset — Thank you — Thank you — without you, I would not hear butterflies singing, without you, I would not understand black bear humor, or the creativity of jays planning their breakfast, without you, I would not feel flora whispers of long-lived wisdom on the back of my neck while sitting in Padmasana, without you, I would be holding my breath as mountains siphon the moon’s essence to draw wolves onto piercing pinnacles, protesting against climate injustice — without you — without you — my unwavering wonderment would not survive.