There’s something so–for lack of a better term–poetic about a poem describing an inhospitable land and the kind of creatures that would call it home, especially with the context of the poet Stephanie Burt’s identity as a trans woman and an advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community.

The setting of the poem describes the underwater sea vents where microbial and aquatic life has adapted to the harsh, sulfuric waters that could kill anything unprepared–or rather, unadapted–for the environment they live in. The phrase, “They love it here” resonates with me because it serves as a sort of reframing for me as I read the poem. This class has taught me so much about narrative, perspective, and the reframing of it. To me, these underwater sea vents are inhospitable. If the pressure from going so deep underwater doesn’t kill me, then the sulfur streams will. But to the thermophiles, the zoarchids, and the eelpouts, this environment doesn’t just give them life–it sustains them. They live in this environment, not just survive. Because they live in this environment, why wouldn’t they love the life that this environment brings? These organisms wouldn’t thrive in a different depth zone than the one they live in now.

But of course, Burt isn’t talking about strange-looking deep sea creatures and hardy microbiomes. Not really. This poem takes on an outsider’s perspective, the perspective of a person who exists on the fringes of society rather than existing in the midst of it, the perspective of someone who is considered freakish to others simply because of their existence, the perspective of someone who lives in an “inhospitable” land, has “adapted” to it, and “thrives” in it, despite this land’s and its people’s marginalization.

It’s a very powerful metaphor for the members of the LGBTQIA+ community who have been ostracized by the cisgender, heterosexual, societal norms for their existences outside of perceived societal binaries but have thrived in their communities and spaces and revel in their differences instead of reviling them.