“For Brandon Teena” By Gerry Gomez Pearlberg

Were you buried in your favorite slacks,
black cowboy shirt, and cowboy hat?
That’s what the papers said (at first)
Or were you laid to rest in a women’s
flowered print, a “ladies blouse”
as your relatives insisted that
The Lincoln Journal print
In their “correction” on the “facts”
of how you dressed --- alive and dead?

Are any of us what our families pretend?
Our sex lives and the nature of our deaths
reclaimed, revisited, unread
unspeakable what we do in bed
And whom we love and how we dress.
Encountering eternity in our favorite slacks,
cowboy shirts, and vests, and hats.
Confronting eternity undisguised.
Dressed to kill. To die for. Unrevised

1) Based on the poem, what inferences can we make about Brandon Teena’s family? Use details from the text to support your answer.

2)Write a few sentences explaining your understanding or interpretation of these lines:
Confronting eternity undisguised.
Dressed to kill. To die for. Unrevised