Perhaps to celebrate Supergirl’s latest addition, a transgender superhero played by transgender actress Nicole Maines, this week has been declared the very first international Recognition of Gender Diversity week. Inspired by this, here is an assortment of poems.
in praise of bell curves
we cry for normality
no deviation!
the waves crash today…
this teacup violence stirs
a tempest of hate
a misogynist?
I do not draw boundaries
between sand castles
keeping to my lane
I pen verse with bitter ink
amidst salty seas
Radical? Don’t make me laugh! So-called ‘feminists’
Obsessing over genitals endlessly, as if flesh were all!
Gatekeeping woman’s country – with ignorance:
Devil take ’em, and all who follow…
the penis is cursed!
they cry for its removal –
but not like that…
their choice is cruel:
the altar or the pyre…
your choice is simpler
such fear of the knife!
if it were reversible
would you celebrate?
let’s strip the rainbow
of one colour at a time
leaving only tears
mark my words with care:
one taste of diversity
will corrupt for life!
he says he’s a she
though I never saw before
nor anyone else
these professionals
invented diagnoses
to soothe parents’ guilt
the signs that were hid too well
they say never existed
there’s no valid age
for a child’s self-assessment!
they’ll die too young
Francis James Franklin (Alina Meridon) 