Having done these things

Having grown up in a ‘bicultural environment’
(use that one at interviews when the Treaty question comes up – they’re being tokenistic so why shouldn’t you?)
having gone mental and medicated through working in mental health,
having travelled and found that control freaks
and toothy women on the make
and fauxcentric pains in the arse are cross-cultural,
having survived living with racist right-wingers for 11 months,
having caused and survived a six car nose-to-tail on the motorway,
having posed nude for art and money’s sake with pubic hair in various states of regrowth,
and once with a serious kidney infection,
having taken pleasure in being female amongst dog like men in the far north,
having happily lived alone,
having realised that airports,
and many other places where disparate people come together out of duty,
are loud and lonely,
having picked up the old, scared me and run with her,
having done these things,
yes, I do believe that thus far,
I’ve lived.