The World is a Scary Place to Be (2009)

[I’m thinking about reading this at a Trans-Remembrance Open Mic in a few weeks. Suggestions? Edits? Comments? Please! -J]

The World is a scary place to be
when the difference between how I was or was not perceived

Used to be the difference between being offered or offering
A subway seat.

Now it could be
Life or Death
Or maybe
Just Death or Rape

For wearing what I want to wear
Instead of what is ‘innate’

Or maybe
What I SHOULD feel is inherent

“What’s the difference,” I tell him
When the borders are ALL constructed,

And we are living proof that they are Man-Made
– – > But what makes a Man “a Man” anyway?

We almost feel as though we are
The only ones who “get it”

But to say that we, ourselves, FULLY understand
Might be just as ignorant

As those who say they “just don’t get it”
And outcast us for that because

We do not fit in their pretty plain frames,
Their categories and boxes of –

Who is offered, and who is offering.
It is an endless debate.

But I was Born into this scary World this way,
So I, too, MUST have a place.