Pink, White, and Blue — A Trans School Poem

This is my first real foray into spoken word poetry. I wrote it with fire, frustration, and tears after a particularly draining week in the grad school classroom and a profoundly mortifying SH episode. If nothing else, it was cathartic and I feel a bit better for having created it! To get the most out of this poem, it is written roughly as it should sound, fluidly but almost phonetically. Imagine saying it with great courage, confidence, and verve in front of a full lecture theater as a rebellious act— that is how I imagined it. It is written as it should sound.

With love,

Billie

An awesome mural outside the Y in Melrose, MA

I walk into the Fletcher Classroom

As different

As distinct

I know I do not belong

You know I do not belong

But

I sit here anyway

I sit In your class

Because

This is my class too.

We talk all-day

About politics, law, and war

We talk all night

About politics, law, and war

You talk about violence as physical and pure.