I Raise My Voice

If they could tell you with an ultrasound

if the child was to be like I am,

There would be in utero genocide

against my gender, my sexuality, my mind,

my identity.

Knowing this is more than hypothetical,

anger bleeds into words.

And I wonder if they had probed

through my brain before I was born,

to see

what I would become,

would I even exist?

Would they have opted out of

the back roads my mental health would take

or the gender inside me that does not exist?

I’ve watched too many men

play transgender women,

watched a few too many shows steal trans identity

mottle it with their privileged hands

take it for their own like they have any right

to claim gender as an act.

I’ve heard too many people say “crazy”

like they are fluent only in slurs

against people they don’t understand

I’ve heard too many people

try to explain to me that

“real” illness is different than being “psycho”

and I’ve drowned in my thoughts

too many times

to see neurotypical people brush me aside.

I’ve watched too many people like me

consume another culture,

chew it like flavored wax and spit it back out,

stripped of its autonomy and ready for

mass-consumption.

I’ve watched too many trans people

too many gay people

too many sick people

and too many black people

suffer.

I know the beautiful people we exploit,

highlight, erase and even kill

and I’ve seen love ignite fires for them

for me.

I’ve seen exploding pulsars

in news that you would rather ignore

and I’ve seen union

in people you are trying to disperse

and I’ve seen the way the world can

choose to ignore

or choose to listen

when we use our voices as loudly as possible.

People are universes of changing constellations

and we shouldn’t need

to justify our right to life;

I raise my voice because I am important

not in spite of my gender but because of it

and black people are important

not in spite of their skin color but because of it

and gay people are important

not in spite of their sexuality but because of it,

because I am tired of watching

lives erased from a blackboard

assembled by straight white men.

I raise my voice

Because human experience must be shared

and if no one speaks

we cannot be heard.

Author's Note

Would love to receive feedback please???

Reviews

[Kevin Casin]

This is an incredible and a powerful poem! All I can say is: preach! I loved it.