Tonight's Poet Corner: To The Beautiful Souls

To The Beautiful Souls
by Belinda Roddie

To the women who shave their chins
and hide their estrogen in tiny bottles and
needles in their purses -

To the men who look at themselves in
the mirror and feel discomfort toward
the flesh that rises from their chests,
and each night just wishing that their voices
would drop a little further,
a little faster -

To those who get tired of being called
"sir" or "madam" when neither of them
works, and who hate having to see
"Mister" or "Missus" on the mail
sent to their door -

To those who walk outside in a skirt
and lipstick one day, and in a tailcoat
and tie the next, who simply want
others to respect them in both identities,
or all three of them, or all four of them  -

To those who have seen the binary
not as a balancing beam, but instead
as a tightrope they cannot straddle,
or a railroad track where if they stand
in the middle, a train will bowl them over -

To those who have found themselves

on the street
without friends
without healthcare
without family to call
without money to spend
without medicine to take
on the brink of death
by either their hand
or
someone else's -

I think of you every single
damn day, and while I cannot
lift all of you from the flood,
I can at least prepare a boat
for you to sail against the deluge, and see

the crescent moon on the other
side of the bridge, where some light
still shines on civilization for you.

This week is Transgender Awareness Week. For more information, please watch the amazing video by Jackson Bird down below.