The Trans Woman's Burden

With Apologies To Rudyard Kipling

Take up the Trans Woman's burden,
Send forth your thoughts and dreams,
To claim a space not given,
To be where none deems.

Where skirts go spinny, whirling,
In spaces not your own,
To seek a kind of freedom,
In places women have known.

Take up the Trans Woman's burden,
The hormones that you'll take,
To feel the rush of change,
For AGP's sweet sake.

To walk where none invited,
To speak where none would hear,
To live as if delighted,
With every mirrored tear.

Take up the Trans Woman's burden,
And reap the scorn you've sown,
The blame from those you've silenced,
The hate that's now your own.

You've crossed the sacred threshold,
Of spaces held so dear,
Invading with your presence,
Where only women should appear.

Take up the Trans Woman's burden,
No praise from those you've crossed,
For in your quest for identity,
You've counted freedom's cost.

The silent, sullen women,
Shall weigh your claim and you,
In every glance, a judgment,
In every sigh, a rue.

Take up the Trans Woman's burden,
And bear it to the end,
For in your heart, you'll wonder,
If this was how to mend.