Originally published in Issue 24 of Rabbit: A Journal for Non-ficton Poetry, released May 18, 2018.
Ever since this poem was a trans idea
in its trans author’s trans head, it has wanted to be
a trans poem in a trans issue of a literary journal. It began
before conception in the author’s high school English class,
when her teacher told the class from the front of the room,
“You, too, can be trans poets. All you have to do is write,
and be trans. You may one day win a poetry prize
for trans people, if you work really hard at it.
Go to trans workshops, submit to trans journals
and trans issues of journals, work on trans bios
about how long you have known you were a trans poet, and
whether your family accepts that you are trans
and a poet. You must study hard the craft of trans poetry.
Buy every trans issue you see on the shelves.
There aren’t very many right now because it’s 1999,
but trust me: this will come in handy some day,
when the poetry world starts acknowledging the existence
of trans poets who write trans poetry for trans journals.”
This poem intends to be revised, but it has not
had The Surgery yet. Its new name is Trans Poem.
Always refer to it by the correct title; never call it
Good Poem or Good Poet’s Poem. Respect this poem’s transness;
mention it at every opportunity, with one exception:
never mention this poem’s transness when you justify its failure
to be published in the “normal” journals. Don’t mention
how all literature was queer until one day it wasn’t,
and deny that gender ever affects your decisions
so these trans-genre poems keep appearing in trans journals.