Song inspired by this article and image: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/06/world/asia/china-smog-pollution.html

2020 Entry to Tiny Desk I wrote this song while pregnant with my daughter. I was in yet another stage of coming out, and I was feeling very protective of the life growing inside me. I was taking a walk with my boyfriend on a road with no sidewalk, so we had to walk on the gravel shoulder. We walked facing the oncoming traffic. We felt safer knowing we could look into the drivers' eyes and make sure they saw us. Later that day, that walk felt like an apt analogy for moving through life as a pregnant man. I thought about certain legislators and leaders who treated queer people as a fiction. I thought about how it has only been through brave acts of visibility that queer people have gained the level of rights and protection we have today. So - it is not always safe to come out. But sometimes, it is also not safe to stay hidden. I could go on and talk more about the lyrics, but, perhaps I'll save that for another time and end here for now. Thank you so much for listening and reading, Eli Lyrics: I’ve been walking this rocky highway Facing traffic, looking into your eyes I would like some shelter, but the only road is the shoulder I’ve got a folded map with coded writing and my old instincts, out of hiding So I trust my pockets and my sense of smell And I’m not hiding, just cause you'd put me in hell It's not like that and I don’t have time for vain curiosity. So, if you can’t see me, then I have to make you hold your eyes open, you don’t have to understand my whole story, to know I’m not fiction. Well, thank god for friction - that gets me on my way. I’ve transformed myself in this life from girl to man to man carrying life. There’s no discrepancy, there’s no illusion there is evolution and there is pure beauty. So, if you can’t see me, then I have to make you hold your eyes open, you don’t have to understand my whole story, to know I’m not fiction. Well, thank god for friction - that gets me on my way. Ghosts and logic, we each have our own, we hide and follow and pretend that we’re in control. But, I can’t shield you from what you see I have just my skin and you’re in an SUV driving reckless, asking for protection from the god of shameless mis-direction I’m not fearless, just an alert pedestrian with somewhere to go. So, if you can’t see me, then I have to make you hold your eyes open, you don’t have to understand my whole story, to know I’m not fiction. Well, thank god for friction - that gets me on my way. And, I'm on my way.