Poetry From Penellope: TDOR 2017

This is the poem I wrote and performed for this years Transgender Day Of Remembrance in Boulder Colorado.

Title: TDOR 2017

Other. Sudden declassification
Unrelenting alienation.
Posters to incite self termination.

Centralized, Focused, Dehumanization.
Forced into litigation for re-personization.
Yet kill a young, black, trans women
No court date.

We have come to expect American justice to run late.
You can no longer simply spectate.
Like Sara Connor said "No Fate"

When laws are not "Made too"
but changed too
Reflect the bigotry of a few.
Misrepresentation of fact.

Repeatedly told its an idle attack,
take a step back, relax.
Cut those nazi's some slack.
Just close your eyes to the lies.

They are force feeding you, seeding in you.
There are times I wish I could close my mind,
Or was blind to the 29
NOT standing here
But SILENCE is not what stops VIOLENCE.

Bent but not broken
No single life a mere token.
Our Visibility is not something chosen.

Devaluation beginning at birth
Mixed blessing or a curse
Intrinsic knowledge that "Be Yourself"
is advice for someone else.

Political incursion
leverage applied to the already ostracized
Minority of a minority bearing the weight
to much death
even for a community sized plate

I am no longer sorry to inform
Your silence breeds violence just like consent.

Heading into stormy weather
Blood soaked stones mark the road
to EQUALITY
A long way to go, no use denying it.
but you are not alone.

That which makes you who you are
was birthed in the heart of a star
So grab hands with the mass of improbability
Existing next to you.
Know that I see you.

Bent but UNBROKEN
let us not gently stand together
and lament the loss and the cost of authenticity

              Say their names.

By: Penellope Logue, 2017