There is half-made woman on the TV screen,

She feels she is incomplete.

I trace the curls of her hair with my eyes,

Thinking only that she is pretty.

"He's a dude?!"

Erupts from beside me and I am startled.

"She is a woman." I say.

"With a dick!"

I am too shocked to answer properly.

"Unless she's had the surgeries."

The words sound stupid, but I cannot find the ones I am looking for.

"He's a fag!"

Shouting at the television as if they care to hear.

"She's a woman." I repeat.

"Man, you can't even tell!"

Angry, personally offended

And seeing nothing beyond the labels.

My mouth won't open.

I think I have lost or failed somehow.

"That's sick! She's-- He's a fag!"

Childish, but...

The proper pronoun. For just a second.

Have I won after all?

She is a woman.