Dynamo
Strange life exists in ice floes and steam vents.
It burgeons where the sun’s light cannot probe.
Wherever Earth gifts heat and nutrients,
life thrives — in every niche around the globe.
From tree-crown leaf-squalls down to spindrift roils,
vast swarms of life-forms joust for food and breath.
They braid bewildering genetic coils
to stave off entropy and creeping death.
We try to marshal Life in corridors;
time after time it splits each man-made box.
(A taxological approach ignores
life’s bent for squirming free from doors and locks.)
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Clenched constructs, like insisting Man and Wife,
cannot reflect the dynamo of life.
Alan Wagstaff
On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14168, titled “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” This order mandates that all federal agencies recognize only two sexes, male and female, as determined at conception. The order directs federal agencies to replace the term “gender” with “sex” in all official documents and communications .
In addition, the President rescinded several executive orders from the Biden administration that had expanded protections for LGBTQ+ individuals. Notably, Executive Order 14020, which established the White House Gender Policy Council to advance gender equity and equality, was revoked.
By rescinding previous protections and implementing new directives, the White House has significantly altered the federal government’s stance on gender identity, impacting documentation, communication, housing, military service, and more.
My poem, ‘Dynamo’, points out that life and evolution are fundamentally multi-facetted and chaotic and that attempts to straight-jacket life with gender rules are pushing in an opposite, and untenable, direction.
Alan Wagstaff
