Transcendencies<\/p>\n
A Transgender Manifesto<\/p>\n
by<\/p>\n
Jennifer Angelina Petro<\/p>\n
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We are all transcendentalists<\/p>\n
Seeking to live above duality and paradox,<\/p>\n
We are all transcendent,<\/p>\n
Shining across space and time in clouds<\/p>\n
Of oxygen and carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen;<\/p>\n
Each and every one of us transcends<\/p>\n
Something, or someone, or somehow<\/p>\n
Or someday\u2014just to be able to stand here catching our breath\u2014<\/p>\n
We transcend and we become\u2014<\/p>\n
It is as simple as that.<\/p>\n
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Our blood streams are transcontinental,<\/p>\n
Our lives holy translations of spirit and soul,<\/p>\n
And if we are lucky, we sense ourselves being<\/p>\n
Transcribed onto the pages of the world<\/p>\n
And can take comfort in knowing<\/p>\n
Our lives are written, revised, edited, and published<\/p>\n
By storylines far greater than ours\u2014<\/p>\n
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We are all transfigured, like Jesus on the transmountain<\/p>\n
And then resurrected to life everlasting<\/p>\n
Every time we transcend ourselves to become ourselves–<\/p>\n
Life is nothing but a series of ongoing<\/p>\n
Transplantations and transferals of fluids and spirit–<\/p>\n
We transmogrify our way through life–<\/p>\n
And time is transinfinite\u2014shifting over and ever through<\/p>\n
Many transhistorical points of references<\/p>\n
That are increasingly transcultural and transhuman, and<\/p>\n
Full of blood and wishes—<\/p>\n
Everything we do, say, or think<\/p>\n
Is transformative, setting events into motion<\/p>\n
That change us and our world—<\/p>\n
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We are all transients and haven\u2019t a clue\u2014<\/p>\n
Even beyond our so-called beliefs, where or when, how, or why<\/p>\n
We will be transformed and\/or transported<\/p>\n
To otherness, to other transpossibilities—<\/p>\n
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Our spirits translocate and love transelevates us\u2014<\/p>\n
We are transpirited and our souls translucent,<\/p>\n
Transmissible, and transoceanic—-<\/p>\n
Why not rejoice and dance with one another<\/p>\n
And love the best of who we are?<\/p>\n
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Yes, I am transpierced with pain,<\/p>\n
Yes, I have been transplanted inside<\/p>\n
And the ground softens with every step;<\/p>\n
Yes, I am transpolar and songs and poems<\/p>\n
Come aching to be transubstantiated into form through me,<\/p>\n
And yet, even as I move through a series<\/p>\n
Of neverending transversals only to find myself<\/p>\n
Transported into more hatred, ignorance,<\/p>\n
And shadow-driven insecurities of the white men\u2014<\/p>\n
I am still here\u2014I have not given up yet—<\/p>\n
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I transilluminate boundaries<\/p>\n
That no longer have solid meaning\u2014they never did,<\/p>\n
But now monsters are waking up to the truth that gender<\/p>\n
Is not fixed—it is transfixed\u2014and no longer the transaxle<\/p>\n
Of a tired binary sustained by them\u2014the white men\u2014<\/p>\n
Whose own genitals they never truly know,<\/p>\n
Or love, or transform into possibilities without shame—<\/p>\n
Even though everything about people like me is transubstantiated<\/p>\n
By living, breathing experience—for here I am, and yet I am told<\/p>\n
I do not exist\u2014I am told I do not deserve to exist—<\/p>\n
Even though everything exists based on continuous<\/p>\n
Transformations of spirit and body,<\/p>\n
And long, transcendent series of moments<\/p>\n
Spilling into other moments into which we are all<\/p>\n
Given choices to hurt or to heal, love or to hate,<\/p>\n
Explore or destroy\u2014and the occurrences of transpeople<\/p>\n
Hurting anyone are rare—for true transpeople<\/p>\n
Understand pain as few others do————-<\/p>\n
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What makes you think you can transpose<\/p>\n
An already faulty belief system to justify or rationalize<\/p>\n
Your unjustifiable and irrational actions and laws?<\/p>\n
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Do you really think humanity will not eventually wise up<\/p>\n
To your genocidal ways?<\/p>\n
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Be ye transported into a land where transcendencies<\/p>\n
Are accepted as commonplace\u2014because, in actuality,<\/p>\n
They already are—<\/p>\n
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We all transmute oxygen and water<\/p>\n
And food into our transubstantiating metabolisms\u2014<\/p>\n
Everything we do is a transaction of time and space<\/p>\n
Body, mind, spirit, soul—no matter how far we move<\/p>\n
From one another, we are all transactors,<\/p>\n
And our breath transoceanic, and our lives<\/p>\n
Transferrable with one another\u2019s—<\/p>\n
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It will happen despite your barbaric ideas—<\/p>\n
I will not be transfixed by your gaze—You<\/p>\n
Who cannot think past your own shadow\u2014<\/p>\n
I am a living transmission of messages<\/p>\n
Who illuminates your small mindedness.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I am not here to inspire some kind<\/p>\n
Of transcultural revolution\u2014<\/p>\n
I AM a revolution—I am<\/p>\n
Transfiguration transanimated by my every movement,<\/p>\n
And I live as a thorn in the side<\/p>\n
Of the white man who has lost any ability\u2014<\/p>\n
Indeed\u2014if they ever had any—to transmute limited thinking<\/p>\n
Into growth, evolution, wisdom, common sense—<\/p>\n
Love and true, \u201cChristian\u201d charity\u2014<\/p>\n
The Jesus transfigured on the mount does not know<\/p>\n
Hatred\u2014no matter what Paul tried to tattoo<\/p>\n
Onto him—Jesus was transgender\u2014transforming<\/p>\n
God-seed into woman-flesh\u2014<\/p>\n
And back again to seed and flower for all eternity—You can know this<\/p>\n
With all certainty, if you will only look past your own<\/p>\n
Untouched, unloved, unabused genitals—<\/p>\n
Jesus came to transfigure you and to set your limited beliefs on fire,<\/p>\n
Jesus came to give you a transfusion to flush out<\/p>\n
Your hatred both of yourself and of those<\/p>\n
Who truly live as he suggested\u2014steeped in the beatitudes<\/p>\n
So deeply as to be transcribed into living testaments<\/p>\n
Of love\u2019s transcendent power\u2014<\/p>\n
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Come, shed your mantles of tissue and weariness,<\/p>\n
Come shed your tired ideological transparencies,<\/p>\n
And transmigrate with me to a way of living where Jesus reigns<\/p>\n
Alongside the mother tree and the angels<\/p>\n
Of transmogrification, and beings of transdimensional<\/p>\n
Singing and dancing—<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For we all transpire–and will–sooner than we want,<\/p>\n
Life is transonic, yes, but it is death that comes at the speed of sound\u2014<\/p>\n
And when it does we shall all be transposed against a backdrop of light<\/p>\n
And seen for how we really lived and breathed—<\/p>\n
So live now with me, with us\u2014we are your brothers and sisters<\/p>\n
And siblings of light transilluminated with holy,<\/p>\n
And unending folly and grace, and joy transacted<\/p>\n
Into countless transferals—let us all be<\/p>\n
Translocated into here and now—transgiven<\/p>\n
Transcendencies in love, sweet love,<\/p>\n
Everlasting.<\/p>\n
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