Happy Trans Day of Visibility!! Or Night of Visibility at This Point, I Guess

Hello, all. Like it says in the title, I want to wish everyone a very happy Trans Day of Visibility. I’m so grateful for my trans friends and family members for being around and for being themselves. The world is a better place when people are able to be themselves. I don’t think knowing yourself is something anyone is taught to do in capitalist America. It’s not something that billionaires and other monsters want you to know. I think that to explore your identity is to choose to push back against that.

I’m sick, and also going to post again tomorrow (spoilers), so I‘m going to mostly just put a lil’ poem down below and dip out now. I hope you like it. Thank you for reading.

popping balloons

i can tie my spine into a balloon animal 

and pop it when i decide the air is worth 

more than the form. i paint my face bright

pink and carve carnations into my skull. 

all i’ve ever wanted was to show them

to you. when i was young i didn’t have 

anywhere to hide except my own chest

my rib cage like streamers tearing, 

like roses wilting. i fell in on myself 

and wondered why i couldn’t find my feet.

i juggled my own severed hands and wondered

why i couldn’t feel anything. i sewed them 

on backwards, i cross stitched hearts like tears

on my cheek and the thread bled, it 

pooled with smeared lipstick, i’ll be a freak show.

i’ll stuff crystals under my lip and sing.

my own creation stands in the mirror. 

i couldn’t meet myself until i made myself