Hello Friends,
Today’s poem by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, a trans woman poet who lives in California, was originally published as part of the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series on December 11, 2018. Espinoza has also been featured previously on my poem-a-day list for “The Moon is Trans.”
Enjoy.
Ællen
Today’s poem by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, a trans woman poet who lives in California, was originally published as part of the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series on December 11, 2018. Espinoza has also been featured previously on my poem-a-day list for “The Moon is Trans.”
Enjoy.
Ællen
Things Haunt
California is a desert and I am a woman inside it.
The road ahead bends sideways and I lurch within myself.
I’m full of ugly feelings, awful thoughts, bad dreams
of doom, and so much love left unspoken.
Is mercury in retrograde? someone asks.
Someone answers, No, it’s something else
like that though. Something else like that.
That should be my name.
When you ask me am I really a woman, a human being,
a coherent identity, I’ll say, No, I’m something else
like that though.
A true citizen of planet earth closes their eyes
and says what they are before the mirror.
A good person gives and asks for nothing in return.
I give and I ask for only one thing—
Hear me. Hear me. Hear me. Hear me.
Hear me. Bear the weight of my voice and don’t forget—
things haunt. Things exist long after they are killed.
■
California is a desert and I am a woman inside it.
The road ahead bends sideways and I lurch within myself.
I’m full of ugly feelings, awful thoughts, bad dreams
of doom, and so much love left unspoken.
Is mercury in retrograde? someone asks.
Someone answers, No, it’s something else
like that though. Something else like that.
That should be my name.
When you ask me am I really a woman, a human being,
a coherent identity, I’ll say, No, I’m something else
like that though.
A true citizen of planet earth closes their eyes
and says what they are before the mirror.
A good person gives and asks for nothing in return.
I give and I ask for only one thing—
Hear me. Hear me. Hear me. Hear me.
Hear me. Bear the weight of my voice and don’t forget—
things haunt. Things exist long after they are killed.
■