| This is a poem by Alysia Harris & Aysha El Shamayleh, it is about the dual identities of a transgender person. Melissa sits in the back of the classroom afraid to speak up, She pulls akwardly at her extra loose khaki cargo pants, She doesn't want the boys to notice her. James finds himself at the back of a classroom, His baseball cap casts a shadow on his pimple stained forehead, A wide shirt hangs from his broad shoulders, But no one ever noticed him. Melissa The teacher asks, And she says nothing because she is not here, And Melissa has never been here, Because Melissa is just some abstract jumble of syllables that doesn't fit her position, She is not what she seems, She doesn't want to have to explain to her mother for the 232nd time why she doesn't want to wear a dress to prom, Doesn't paint her face it's cause her whole body is painted on. Melissa, Melissa James doesn't want to have to explain where he came from, Cause with the exception of Melissa he has been deemed an abstract reality by everyone, All he wishes for is to get to wear a tuxedo to prom. And Melissa has been tucking in breasts that will be growing for three years now, Been using duct tape to press them down and mould them more into pecs, She just wishes that people would understand that at birth her genitals didn't know which way to grow, Mad at God who couldnt relay a message directly to her hormones that they should produce more testosterone, The only person who understands her is James, And they ... |
