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The text reads as follows:

The Book Of a letter tied to a balloon
Translated by Lewis Figun Westbrook

Chapter 1
1 I call it begging most days, i
start it like a letter.
2 Dear God, Father Mother
Brother Sister.
3 Dear Friend Family Enemy.
4 Dear Person People Love.
5 Dear Life, Living Death
6 Dear slow your breathing,
do not fall to your knees.
7 I am not standing, not even
grasping my hands
8 There is no altar, no
sacrifice unless you count
pride.
9 I tell myself I am strong, I
do not need you.
10 You, all powerful. You, a
promise to never stray.
11 I do not need you or your
servants.

Chapter 2
1 Please forgive me father If
you are there, if you do care.
2 For wanting to be something
everyone tells me is wrong.
3 For being wrong.
4 I always wondered what the
forbidden fruit tastes like.
5 Like he/him pronouns or
getting to say I’m gay.
6 If it somehow tastes like
freedom.
7 I asked so many times for
signs, for pillars of flame and
salt mounds.
8 Asked so many times as I
continued living like I knew
you.
9 I don’t know.
10 I don’t know who I am
writing this to because I don’t
know if you are there or if a
God can even be kind.
12 I want you to be.
13 I want you to send one of
those hugs from no one at all.
14 From a ghost.

Chapter 3
1 It’s been a long time since
I’ve been happy, and didn’t
you say that men are that they
might have joy
2 Can’t I just be A man for
today then?
3 Didn’t you say Eve came
from Adam’s rib so am I not
almost a man already.
4 A broken rib of one, a
broken bit of one.
5 I grew from one
6 Don’t I pass enough for
you?
7 Didn’t you say that he who
is perfect cast the first stone.
8 I’ve spent my whole life
climbing boulders left by
sinners.
9 And didn’t Paul change his
name from Saul after a vision
and someone calling him for
the first time him.
10 To serve.

Chapter 4
1 So, what do you say? Will
you tell me if my perfection in
heaven, my cleansing comes
with free top surgery and
everyone using my preferred
name
2 I mean God can’t be a birth
name, so why do I have to go
by mine?

Chapter 5
1 There’s supposed to be a
special ending after you pray
2 It’s called truth and faith and
knowing
3 I’ve always been afraid of
the leap, used to jump from
RV to roof, RV to roof, RV to
roof.
4 And every time I stutter.
5 and that step onto planes
still feels huge like it did
when my tiny feet could slip
through and my parents
carried me across.
6 I once read a story about a
boy who wrote you a letter
tied to a balloon.
7 My father used to make me
burn my lists to Santa Claus
because the flames carried it
into the wind.

Chapter 6
1 This poem will end with a
thunderclap.
2 Cause my voice is growing.
3 Until I get a sign to stop, I’m
gonna keep going, okay?
4 I’ll change my name.
5 One day say I’m not
pronoun indifferent, that my
gender is not simply in the
eyes of the beholder.
6 Maybe then I’ll write you a
letter.
7 Tie it to a balloon and all.
8 Let me know if you get it
sometime god.

Signed Lewis Figun Westbrook