30th June 2024

 

use this date

for you are ahead of yourself

lives wished away

© Rachel Green June 2024

Ask yourself this:

Do you know a transwoman?

Have you been harmed by one?

I mean, personally, actually?

Have you been threatened by a five year old

who wants to wear a Cinderella dress?

Did he pull a knife on you on the Hallowe'en aisle?

Have you ever seen a transwoman?

Maybe in the ladies loo?

And were they stomping about leering?

Or were they trying to be as small as they could,

do their business and get out without a fuss?

If there was a fuss, did they start it?

or did you?

Have you ever seen a transwoman

assault and rape another woman?

I mean, in real life,

not one of those imagined possibilities

put about by politicians

or written into novels by once-popular authors?

has your sister, your daughter, your cousin, your best friend

or the woman you see every day on the bus

been propositioned or assaulted by a transgirl?

What about an old white man,

or a Bible quoting middle aged woman

or a man in a balaclava?

Worry about the things that are real

and ask yourself

why you are afraid of someone

for whom your smile would make all the difference?

© Rachel Green June 2024