Die Standing

A body does not define you.
A body can not determine the gender of the mind.
I know not everyone agrees.
Particular around these parts.
Living in a backwards part of a backwards place.
It isn’t great.
Everything is just a phase.
“Take ‘em to church. Make ‘em change”
That’s god’s plan.
But let’s not forget,
The god they look up to is a cis white man.
Let’s start a revolution.
Make our own plans.
I’m sick of listening to the statistics.
I am sick to the core of the stories I am hearing.
I am sick that we have rapists running countries,
While we make trans people’s minds prisons.
A person’s gender is not a sin.
Don’t forget,
“Love thy neighbour”
I refuse to let a book take another life.
No book is worth a life.
There are alarms going for years,
And still,
mothers are losing sons cos they couldn’t stop
Calling them daughters.
Last wishes set alight by fathers,
Who would let their daughters die,
Before they’d use a name not so dead.
Gravestones carved with names deader than
The bodies under them.
I go to bed and wake up heavy,
Hoping that my mates don’t fall through the cracks.
That they don’t become stats and figures on a page.
I fill with rage at the thought.
And I will take those words to a stage.
I will make a happy ending for those
Whose bodies defy their souls.
I will fight until the laws stand for all.
I will create a world of quality.
Or I will die,
Standing for trans equality.

[su_box title=”About the Author” style=”soft” box_color=”#272265″]

I wrote this for my friends who are part of the LGBT+ community. I want to be the best ally possible and in the time of trump and when a lot of my LGBT+ friends go to religious school that aren’t very supportive or have family that would disown them if they found out. I realised that being a good ally in the position that I’m in is more than just using the correct pronouns, for me, it’s being active. I was going mad trying to find a way to do something when there were no protests going on, so I thought I’d write the poem and I just hope that it brings people who read it comfort, cos it must be terrifying being trans, I’ve seen the stats, the stories, it’s disgusting, people are people. Not just trans people but the whole community. It must be terrifying and I see that. So if no one else is supporting you at the moment, just know that one girl who wrote a poem does, along with so many others.

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[su_box title=”Editor’s Note” style=”soft” box_color=”#272265″]

It gives me hope to see young people speaking out like this – and to see such self-awareness and willingness to listen and learn from other people’s experiences in someone so young is really inspiring and heartening. Trans people face a lot of discrimination in this country and we could all do with learning how to be better allies. I’m very proud of this young writer for standing up and openly supporting her friends. She is an example for all of us.

Apart from all this, there’s such skill in evidence here in the way the writer deploys rhyme, rhythm, repetition and natural cadences. This is a poem that deserves – even needs – to be read aloud in public spaces.

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