Made Up Words - A Poem With Some Notes.

This poem I wrote in response to a post I saw online. Give it a read and let me know what you think?

Non-binary is a made up word, 
But so is love, trust, and cheese; 
Dialect, school, education, 
Tennis, soccer, and sword-fighting. 

Made up words are the emphasis 
Of every language ever– written or heard.
All words are made up, they’re the 
Structural foundations of communication–
An easy way to convey your needs 
And requests to others. 

You could point to something, 
But would anyone understand you? 
You could motion with your hands,
But what is a twirling finger to just 
A pat on the air before them? 

Of course, Non-binary is made up. 
But so is straight, so is cisgender, 
And definitely don’t forget “normal.” 
Because anything other than that 
Is considered a made up word right? 

Language evolves over time, 
To meet our communication needs. 
It changes to help us understand 
Better who we are and what we 
Want to convey. 

So being made up doesn’t change 
The validity of its form.

Because quite frankly, all words 
Begin as made up words. 

Notes: I briefly saw a post on Facebook saying “Non-Binary is a made-up word.” The post itself had negative connotations, basically saying that the world itself isn’t valid because only Male and Female genders are valid and “natural.” So, after writing the poem, I tried to search up the post again, only to find the reddit thread which I believe it originated from. 

Here are some sources to look at too:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/coachjulieschurr_nonbinary-linguistics-evolution-activity-7190681245649924097-ymLh

https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/8j7tup/nonbinary_is_a_madeup_term/

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