February Reflections (February 27, 2020)

Wish we didn't need

A month for Black History

Or the LGBTQ+ community.

Observing

Throughout the year

Sober vigil days

Against the horrors

Committed against humanity:

January 27th

Holocaust Remembrance Day.

November 20th

Day of Transgender Remembrance.

Remembering/honouring

Those people killed/tortured

For being different.

Except we've forgotten

Human rights struggle

Never ends.

Segregating

Arbitrary based reasons

Defining one's value

By race religion sexual

Or gender orientation.

In demonizing people 

Justifying barbaric inhumane

Acts of hate

Through crimes of power.

I say this

Having personally experienced

How hate and intolerance

Scars one's soul.

To the point

One’s fight for life

Becomes a race

To the death.

Using self-harming

And self-medicating

As a means

To numb the pain.

Your soul dies

With each day lived

Until suicide appears

The only solution.

Whether 

By direct means

Like an O/D.

Or having someone else

Pulling the trigger

On your life.

Something

I have endured

For the past 45 years

Of my life.

As my tears fall

Proof of my witnessing

Those who have suffered.

Hoping

Next year

The pain will end.

Therisa © 2020  

The Dream Has Grown (February 11, 2016)

"A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." ~ Mahatma Ghandi


Have you

Ever have a dream

That you're willing

To pay the ultimate price

Like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr?

Knowing

Your dream is

Bigger than

Any one person

Or organization.

Radically challenging

Society's paradigm

With its simple message

Of love and equality.

For many transpeople

Our very existence

Is a testament

To our community's dream

Of acceptance and equality.

Just stepping

Into a public space

Is truly

An act of courage.

Aware

In doing this

May mean

A death sentence.

As Canada

And the United States

Celebrate Black History Month

Throughout February.

The struggle

For human rights

Isn't just limited

To ones:

Skin colour

Religious observation

Gender

Or sexual orientation.

Rather

Involves everyone

For no one

Is truly free.

If one person

Remains repressed

In any manner.

And you

Dr. King

Your dreams

Still

Lives on.

Only

It's shared

By a wider community.

Who's hearts

Are filled

With its vision.


Therisa © 2016

Author's note: Although, I was born, into a white, middle class Canadian family, I have known, what it means, to live your life, in abject poverty. Having spent time, in the Toronto women homeless shelter system. Not a place, I want to go back to, again.


Like the Afro communities, of Canada and the United States, the Trans community knows, all too well, what the phrase, "strange fruit", which Billie Holiday sang about. Having your application rejected for housing, because, the landlord wasn't comfortable, with having "one of those tenants". As if, all trans-people work the street or use drugs. Never mind, the hidden crisis of mental heath problems that remain largely unaddressed, by society, at large. One need to hold onto a dream of hope, if they want to grow and heal, as a community, as a whole.