Art devoid of danger lacks many other things as well: pleasure, beauty, and the ability to save us. Poems that divest the self of its masks in order to analyze how those masks are made - by what means, by whom, for what ostensible purpose - those poems risk offering us refuge.

I try to use my privilege to deconstruct from inside the racist, homophobic, heterocentric house, as an ally, while compatriot tools dismantle the patriarch's house. I do this by pushing the boundaries of what makes a poem and what makes an essay. My tools are blur, cross, pulverize, confront, remember.

Poetry gave me the life I live: many of the people I love, the places I've traveled, the things I've learned about myself, the job I hold. And I can't count the times I've been on the precipice of making a - shall we say adventurous? - decision and thought, But think of the poem I'll get out of this. Most of them have paid off.