International Women’s Day,
Thursday, March 8 , 2018
By
Jennifer Angelina Petro
I am a woman.
Born with a penis.
I am a woman who harbors the moon
In the center of her soul.
Born with YX chromosomes,
Low testosterone and high levels of estrogen,
So much so the doctors
Were concerned for her health.
I am a woman with a manta ray
Billowing in the dark waters of her heart.
I am a woman who went unrecognized
When she was born regardless
Of the hormones glowing in her body.
I am a woman who walks with the willows.
I am a woman given testosterone shots
When she was a child.
I am a woman born with Bast in her mind.
I am a woman who sired three sons.
I am a woman who steals through the woods
Like a ribbon of light.
I am a woman called, “Mister,”
For many of her adult years.
I am a woman who sings to each and every tree.
I am a woman with a voice
Everyone identifies as male except the trees.
I am a woman with hidden wings large enough
To drape around her body when she sleeps.
I am a woman who shaves her tits.
I am a woman who speaks stars and planets.
I am a woman who feels most comfortable physically in men’s underwear.
I am a woman who roars.
I am a woman who walks the world in fear for her life, yet walks anyway.
I am a woman who knows when you are secretly grieving.
I am a woman with hair on her fingers.
I am a woman with baskets of bread in her arms.
I am a woman most people do not want to see.
I am a woman with a spirit on fire for justice.
I am a woman who presents in ways so as to smash the tired binaries.
I am a woman with darkness in her eyes that leads to lakes hidden by trees.
I am a woman blessed to be born again and again.
I am a woman surrounded by ghosts of ladies in waiting.
I am a woman feared by men and their stunted desires.
I am a woman who raises the dead from the ground as she passes.
I am a woman feared by TERFS and their insecurities in their own femininity.
I am a woman who nests in her bed like a sleeping bear.
I am a woman feared to exist in the world.
I am a woman who bathes in flowers.
I am a woman with lotuses growing up her spine.
I am a woman with orchids watching from her thoughts.
I am a woman with tigers hiding in her laughter.
I am a woman followed by trooping faeries.
I am a woman walking side by side with a snowy unicorn of power.
I am a woman with herbs in her pockets and moss on her cloak.
I am a woman with hidden rivers of light in her touch.
I am a woman with the universe in her hair.
I am a woman who shatters skewed perceptions.
I am a woman who knows herself as the moon knows the trees.
I am a woman.
Born with a penis.
I am a woman changing the world.
I am a woman as divine as you.