Poetry Collection One

Note: These poems cover my life as I grew to accept myself as a man. My kids are the light of my life. As I’ve grown, I’ve come to find being transgender beautiful, a source of pride. This is true for whoever we are. Be proud of yourself as you are. You’re awesome.

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Look

into a man’s eyes

the boy within

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The day pools at the edge

red, gold, latte foam hedge

night is a ledge

adulthood alleged

childhood dredged

Violets are blue

Night isn’t new

I’d pay the due

if I knew

what was true

At the edge of day

under the cliche

in defiant sway

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What rolls the clock

ominous tick tock

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Childhood

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Promise me, promise me, dear

Jesus lives your prayers to hear

nothing in the basement here

nothing at all to fear

Ring-around-the-rosey

Secrets all held cosy

Lie, lie away the nosey

stifle little one till prosy

the field has an apple tree

a safe kind man no one can see

hope is the sweetest debris

the very sharpest key

from the darkness unto free

The day pools at the edge

red, gold, latte foam hedge

hope in the night is a ledge

adulthood alleged

childhood dredged

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Crush/romance

I’ll trade my heart

for a smile to start

enthusiastic clumsy art

very rarely fills the part

Be the wolf that eats me whole

desire be fire that Prometheus stole

Let me pay Aphrodite’s toll

& find in your eyes my soul

fire held too tight burns too deep

fleeting love is never there to keep

secrets old into the light doth seep

whispering life is naught but cheap

And still the rosey ring

of romance does it sing

come heart, forget the sting

want can never peace to bring

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Marriage

Here comes the bride

frosted with lace and pride

fairytales and lies beside

ignorance in the aisle does glide

Paperdolls playing house

pious little church mouse

curves do lift the blouse

illusions of safety to douse

Wife empathic & fantastic

Person most plastic

soul unenthusiastic

future dire and drastic

societal conformity

personal deformity

the lies we tell ourselves

are our enormity

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Religion

What can one say

of promises of the fey?

Our father

who art in heaven

Hallowed

be thy name

fallen farther

my veins your venom

faith’s shroud

soul gone lame

Where’s the kind?

lies make me blind?

lost in my mind

What is humankind?

In a dream one day

in an elevator

through the open doors

I watched a forest burn

your threat of Hell

Then I closed the doors

I don’t care what you say

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Children

What rolls the clock

ominous tick tock

If self was a sound

in percussion I drown

my kids are the ground

in them am I found

Self isn’t static

can’t live in the attic

victim’al stigmatic

pain’s not pragmatic

adults from children grow

solid ground does go

how to fix this shit-show

I didn’t get the memo

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Divorce

What can you expect?

he bought tomatoes

he should have checked

contents in can not correct

What about me?

to have and hold

my own self untold

out the wrong mold

my skin your touch

never be much

Do you feel the lipstick?

Glide smooth, an overlay of ruby

smudge the color

straighten the beard

I can’t be your woman

can’t be my woman

in this lifespan

I’m a man

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Healing

So there’s the ground

firm under my feet

my soul now found

my voice has sound

absinthe fear

sin so dear

salvation queer

compassion adhere

Alive is joy

present

real

feel

deal

imprint the seal

I’ll be Prometheus and steal

the fire of my soul

I’m a real boy

always was

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Peace

I'm surprised to find pieces

Of myself

On the bus

Then I

Remember

All the romances

I've created on here

Poems and art

And the giddy

Waiting for symbols

To come back to me

Bits in a bottle

Souls on the line

Separate lives

Passing by like

Pulling away from the stop

Today it's just me

And the golden sun at the horizon

It's comfortable to just

Hear the echoes of me

In the rumble of the bus