Late Entry
a poem for Trans Day of Visibility
(dedicated to those of us who have to live in the shadows)
Hi. I’m Daphne. I’m sorry… I’m not very good at this. I know that in a sense this is what I do, this
stringing words together
but I’m not really a poet. My medium is prose — speculative fiction, to be precise, where long descriptions are commonplace and you don’t have to fit the words into a particular shape and the rhythm is not so important.
But I was inspired.
I was inspired by the poetry that was shared with me
the beautiful musings and cutting thoughts
of my trans siblings.
Trans Day of Visibility was yesterday.
I no longer have to be visible.
No one is asking me to stand out.
And yet
I cannot resist the call
The desire to be seen
The desire to be known
The desire to be understood
To display my new body
To showcase my new mind
To expose my new soul
To be VISIBLE
Bright
Shining
Undeniable
Irresistible
To show myself that I can
To show each other that we are
To show the world that we
are not going away
cannot cease to exist
it is no more an option for them
than it is a choice for us
So this is my late entry.
A day late
for Trans Day of Visibility.
Because for me
every day
is Trans Day of Visibility.
And I will stand out
And I will show off
And I will shine
until every day
can be Trans Day of Visibility
for you too.