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Becoming Who You Are. A Transgender Journey

You are born in this world.

 

Born to a mother and father.

 

Born to be a son or a daughter.

 

The mould is set.

 

Your gender announced to the world.

 

Like permanent ink on a banner.

 

Its a boy! ,Its a girl!

 

Its a baby!

 

 

 

You learn to toddle.

 

Pretty pink delicate things,

 

Are given as gifts.

 

But you’d rather play...

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transgenderpoetrypoemtransformationgender

If You Can't Handle Me

 

I'm a woman

But not the palatable kind

Men see me

They want a taste but often can't stomach it

I writhe and thrash around

Until they have to spit me out

But women always see me

The whole of me

The pit of me

Every last bit of me

They don't complain that I'm too dark

To shine their torches through me

And make me bright 

I never bend to their will

But I ...

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acceptable behaviouralphaBisexualdominantDominatrixfeminismgenderhierarchylgtbqpalatablepower dynamicpower playqueersexismstrong womansubmissivewomanismwomen

Different but Equal

Partnership of a knife and fork;

Useful when you are lunchin' ;

Both, complementing the other;

Each, a specific function.

Using a knife in place of a fork,

Would potentially, be doomin' ;

Another pair, different but equal:

MAN AND WOMAN.

 

Footnote:

Gender bias continues to be an issue in my home country (Zambia) and globally, especially in developing nations.

I ap...

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gender

Round and round

Galileo once said the earth was round.
Round and round we go.

Why do we cling to broken things.
Round and round we go.

I had a dream it was truth.
Round and round we go.

One small step for man. One giant leap forward for mankind. Forwards and backwards.
Round and round we go.

The rise and fall of rome. High tides, low tides flow back to the sea
Round and round we go.

This god, ...

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AmericacapitalismdrugsgendergodHomelessnessslaverywar

Office Politics

The corporate king -                    

Salacious surveyor -                                       

Mild-mannered Majesty              

With a wandering eye;                         

A habitual connoisseur               

Of the supple and softly curved.                            

Lingers,                                         

Self-assured.                                

...

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workplacegenderfeminism

Normalcy Bereft

They rewrote songs on the sceneries of their dreams,

under the same roof, in the same room, but alone.

Living in each other’s isolations,

so tiring, boring, sensual, overwhelming, warm.

In thoughts, several severely intimate moments had passed;

their knotted minds kissed intermittently, not seldom.

 

He knew he was boundless, liberal, enraged, , jealous, dizzy,

he thought h...

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lovesexgaypridehomosexualityindienightisolationsocietydiscriminationgenderintimacyequalityfreedomlibertyequal rights

Sign on the door

In giving credence

is there not

a little surrender?

 

the sign

on the door

is a gender

bender

 

I’m Jesus

in the temple

with the 

money lender

 

and the pathway 

of a life

has no 

return

to sender

 

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gender

A Pointy Reckoning

A Pointy Reckoning

 

She had blonde hair

and beautiful, blue, eyes

and these were far more

Innocent times.

Comprehensive,

seventy six,

before we left

for adulthood.

 

I was seventeen

and made to look fifty,

she was a year younger

and made to look black.

 

In a school

in West Yorkshire

we had no black girls

in the sixth form

and the only w...

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Anti-communismArthur MillerGenderlessons learnedRaceThe CrucibleTituba

The Pretender

Pretender in my birth-suit;

living and yet not quite alive.

Every other guy

can thrive just fine.

What they are

is obvious to the eye.

Easily categorised,

flowing with the tide.

Body and stature

matches soul and mind.

Jaded and green-eyed,

wishing it were mine.

Every moment ensnared

within the wrong design.

The pretending must end;

I’ve served my time.

...

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gendertransgressive poetry

Those Paintbrush Women

I think I’m addicted to acting the way,

Behaving the way,

I feel:

Shit.

No, I never meant to-

I-

No, I never intended to-

I-

didn’t set out to break your heart

I think that it came naturally to me...

Snapping those heart strings it’s what

I-

It’s what I’ve always done best.

Affection is a weapon they say,

Charm is a murderer they say,

The blood you lose...

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accidentgenderharmheartbreakhunterinequalitypainrelationshipsexsexuality

Layers

I’m gonna be so pretty for you,

She says

As one layer falls off and tumbles to the ground -

Hugging your feet

Like a lash of waves.

I’m gonna be so pretty for you,

Let me be pretty for you,

I will be the prettiest I’ve ever been,

She says

As one layer of flesh peels off, along with her clothes.

One layer of soft lips melts from her features -

Layers and layers till...

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insecuritygendersexbeautyunconscioussubconscioushumanlayersdestructionunravelling

Inequalities of all shades(revised)

 

Though in dexterity my physically challenged carpenter father,

Than the physically fit proves better,as a source to his anger,

With contemporaries a level ground he enjoyed never!

 

From late childhood there was one thing that me used to bother, why my so discriminated father

On his turn true to cultural dictates,ill treats my domestic chores saddled mother

And heeds not her s...

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genderwealthracisminequalitydiscriminatio

In Cars

In cars, I'm him.
I make the shapes he makes –
one-handing the steering wheel
as if grasping some mane,
I cup the gear stick bulb
like it's a brandy bowl
and coast to junctions
clutch disengaged
scared as sharks to stop,
though on open road
I’ll box in better cars than mine,
a sudden stickler for the limit
I slap down and squeeze your knee
celebrating damming flow,
c...

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graham cliffordwww.grahamclifford.co.ukpoetrycontemporary poetrygenderhistorySwindon

Equally bad (AKA Rantings of an antisexist man in a post-feminist world)


I may be a mister,
But sisters don’t get pissed yeah when I say in fact - I, am a feminist.
There seems to me to be a need for us to celebrate and debate the culture of nurture over greed,
Which appears an instinctively natural part of so many a female’s nature.
Maybe its origins historically are biological,
Isn’t it simple, obvious and logical,
That of the human races pair of parental par...

Read and leave comments (27)

equalityfeminismgenderpolitics

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