Category: 2022-23 Submissions

Just like the wind I’ve danced and sang all over Texas,
the weather is unpredictable but rain or shine I’m always there.
I’ll bounce off the walls sometimes,
and knock down trees but I
still plant seeds everywhere I go.
Nonetheless mountain high or rock bottom
I’ll still sway and sing just like the wind.

Creaking in the walls
A step down the halls

I feel as if I’m being watched

Turn
Blinking, searching, what am I looking for?
There’s nothing there

Facing forward in the still air
Only to hear a creak in my chair

Turn
Glancing, looking, searching
I know it was my chair; why do I have to look?

Staring;
Watching;
I feel like I’m being watched

What do I do?

Breathe

Who’s there?

Breathe

What’s going on?

Breathe

Silence,
The panic is gone

Looking in the mirror hating what stares back at me. I like to think it’s a funhouse mirror not showing things seriously. This is my reality though and this body of mine is one I don’t want. Looking down dreading what I see. The tears start rolling out like a river. “Why can’t I just be normal?” Other people get to live their lives maybe with some dislike for certain parts of their body. My body hatred starts with the fundamental chromosomes given to me. I feel like I have to scream “I’M NOT A GIRL.” To not even be heard or if I am to be shoved the words of god because I’m a walking sin. My family will never look at me the same they live in the delusion that I’m their little girl even though I try to correct them. When I do they say I’m too young to know even though I’ve felt this way before I even knew transgender was a word. Every day I want to give up and just fall back into the norm. If I do that then I’m not being truthful with the world. Even though I struggle now, genderqueers in the past had it worse. In conclusion, I’m a boy and I’m staring at this mirror it may not show me what I want now but I can just imagine what I’m going to be.

I shake the trees taking their leaves
Scattering them on the streets
I blow, pulling someone’s hair
as they walk their dog, stepping on the fall leaves
I shift turning the wind sock
changing directions,
choosing the way
I turn in circles like a puppeteer making the leaves dance
I tiptoe and tap, sneaking silently about
whispering through the night
knocking on doors
I slip and slither
pulling and prying
Twisting,
Changing,
Taking,
I push the clouds
I never stop, I’m always
Going
Flowing
Grabbing
and moving
sometimes in full gusts
That howl and swirl
sometimes soft and light
Like an evening breeze by the beach
Salt floating through the skies
I am calm and quiet, adding mood to a deep night
I am loud and stormy, screaming muffled noises just to get attention
I can create
And destroy
I have many sides,
Many moods,
I am only a small detail in a big world
Something to see but never to understand
I am always changing
Always looking on and over
For you