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 Crater (November 3, 2015)

Sorry

I offend you

In my attempt

Uniting body and soul

As one.

Seeking

An inner truth

Denied to those

Who are born

In the wrong body.

Travelling through

Various minefields

And battlegrounds

You’ve strewed

Around us.

In your fears

And ignorance

Of what

You don’t understand.

Leaving behind

Too many people

Abandoned 

In pain.

Struggling

To crawl out

This toxic landscape

Into the warmth

Of the light.

Without leaving behind

Another stat

To be mourned

On November 20th

Day of Transgender Remembrance.

Therisa © 2015 and 2020   

Author’s note: I had forgotten that I had written this, almost 4 1/2 years ago. Looking back, I was so naive, in my thinking that things couldn’t get worse, for the transcommunity, but it has. Just hope that Trump isn’t elected for another 4 year term, as President of the United States.

DoTR: Building Hope (November 19, 2019)

Emotionally

We gather

On November 20th

Day of Transgender Remembrance.

Through the darkness

Candles are lit

Naming our murdered

Brothers and sisters.

Wanting

But realistically knowing

The killings won't stop

Until society's attitude changes.

Treating everyone

With respect and dignity.

Regardless

Of gender identification

And ethnicity.

Call me

A delusional dreamer

For believing this.

In leaving ignorance

And prejudices behind.

Therisa © 2019

Remembering Of Our 2 Spirited Siblings (November 18, 2019)

You speak 

Sins of the Fathers

Visited upon children

In the name of righteousness.

People

And cultures destroyed

By moral crusades

For your "God"

Of love and compassion.

Unrepentantly justified

Religious belief

Bringing civilization

To these heathen savages.

Of unmarked

Abandoned mass graves

In isolated residential schools

Throughout the north.

Echoing

Into the present

As entire communities

Struggle for survival

And identify.

Tears I shed

For our Indigenous

Brothers and sisters

Denied their birthright

By Western society.

As they fight

Long and hard

To reclaim

What was stolen.

Of lost lives

We'll never know

Their name

To properly honour them.

As we remember

Our murdered siblings.

Regardless

Of skin colour 

And religious beliefs

On November 20th

Day of Transgender Remembrance.

May their souls

Find peace

So long denied

In life.

Therisa © 2019 

Author’s note: Remembering our Indigenous brothers and sisters, who have for too long been tossed away, left to deal with the fall out of the colonization of their culture and religious beliefs.

Candle In The Wind (October 20, 2019)

Need to know

If my existence

Moves the needle

Positively.

As transphobic darkness

Spreads globally.

Waging hatred

Through legislation

And the judiciary.

Even liberal

Tolerant countries

Like Canada

Danger persists.

Often

Underreported.

Even worse

If you're non-Caucasian

Or non-Christian.

Sadly

No one knows

True level of violence

For its trans-communities

As no official stats exist.

A justice system

Long in denial

About reality.

Far cry

From the American transgender

Experience.

To date

Eighteen trans-Americans

Been murdered

In 2019.

Ranking

Third deadliest country

Behind Mexico

And Brazil.

Often

Victims are

Non-Caucasian.

Their deaths

Crime of passion

In their viscous nature

Speaks of hate.

As I light my candle

For Day of Transgender Remembrance

On November 20th

Offering love and light.

Therisa © 2019  

Author’s note: A poem for Day of Transgender Remembrance (November 20)