'Who Are You', by Elena Sofia D’Ambrosio
What do you wear
How does your heart beat when joy flows through
How do you give hugs when you are full of love
How do you let pain sink in next to your joy
How many times have you decided that there must be a happy ending even in messy times
How many times did fear consume you but you didn’t stop
How many times have you been afraid of your queerness
Does this mean that all my female friends will believe that I like them now
Does this ever happen to a boy
But what is a boy
What is a girl
What is love
What is gender
We are what we decide to feel and perform
We are an eternal flow of gender expressions
We are in a constant flow of love that will touch everything everywhere
We are what fear didn’t let us become
We are partly what we fear
We are also new, sometimes free
We are animals chasing a sense of belonging
We are friends lovers magicians of powerful emotions
We are cars driving to impossible dreams
We are friends who share joy in having a meal together
We are what we fear
But we are new every time
We dare to dream
To be
New
To become
To love
To hold
To be
Or to become.
Elena Sofia D’Ambrosio is an Italian queer writer and researcher exploring the intersections of art, identity, and freedom. Her poetry traces the tender spaces between love, fear, and self-acceptance. She believes creativity is a form of resistance—and that every poem begins with curiosity and a strong cup of coffee.