When I was 10,
I thought I was "Irish,"
even though I was
born in the USA.
When I was 20,
I thought I was "Black,"
even though my skin
is pink & freckled,
my hair is straight,
and I have no
African ancestry.
When I was 30,
I thought I was "queer,"
even though I was
married and had
two children, and
all my fantasies
& obsessions & com-
pulsions & attractions
were and had always
been about women.
When I was 40,
I thought I was a
"movie star," even
though the movies
were terrible, and
I was terrible in
them, and almost
no one knew them,
or who I might
have been in them.
When I was 50,
I thought I was
"enlightened," even
though I wasn't.
But of course I was
and am—enlightened,
as I was and still am
—an Irish-Black-
Queer-Movie-Star.
