KarMel Scholarship 2008

 

Poem

“Half Son, Half Daughter”

By Casey Constant

 

 

 

Desciption of Submission: “A poem dealing with some of the conflicts caused by being transgendered, both internal and at home” - Casey

 

Half son, half daughter:

Half inner and half outer;

One glance is all it takes to chart my life.

No hesitation;

To fix this aberration,

A path is chosen: daughter, mother, wife.

 

Stuck in the middle,

I long for something simple,

But instead I'm subject to a traitor's whims.

Each day it worsens;

The rift between them deepens.

Iscarian blossoms mar my chest and bind my limbs.

 

Losing myself daily in this turbulent sea of x and y...

Choosing between freedom and safety in disguise...

 

Don't cry, dear Mother:

You haven't lost a daughter;

After all, you can't lose what you've never had.

You have two others

To form into perfect mothers.

Why can't you let me be what makes me glad?

 

I can't continue

To seek myself within you.

I must be free to be myself or die.

And so I let go,

Become the man that I know

And remove all traces of that wretched lie.

 

It's simple, don't you see: my biology's all wrong...

I have to fix this mess you've made before it's been too long...

 

Half son, half daughter:

Half inner and half outer;

One glance is all it takes to chart my life.

No hesitation;

To fix this aberration,

My only hope lies underneath the knife.

 

Leaving the middle

In search of something simple,

Taking full control of my own fate...

It eases each day;

The rift begins to fade away.

The treacherous flower begins to dissipate...

 

 

 

 

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