Decades [For Shantee Tucker 1988 -2018]
The caress
of sun rays on
a new dawn,
makes your
skin tingle
like ice popping
in a
sweating cup of cola
sizzling
with excitement
as
anticipation trickles down
your
throat.
You are
young.
You have
the world
on your
side.
You are
filled with tomorrows
and still
concerned with missed
chances of
yesterday.
Yet with
each passing year
and shift
of each decade
you learn
your voice,
you make ‘potential’
a verb –
you are
always a step
ahead.
You are
still
young. A
delicate
cynicism
has you hearing –
in each
breath taken between
lines of ‘Happy
Birthday’ –
choked uncertainty.
Your best
friend doesn’t know
how to buy
you gifts.
Gifts are
meant
to get
better with time,
but, ah,
with each year
and recital
of wishes
hitched on
a rising heat
of hope,
uncertainty becomes
an anchor. You
do not want
to be made
fools of.
Through
seasons
tomorrow has
become another
triggering ‘t’
word.
Days become
years
and years
bleed you
into decades.
You remember
a song
you once lost
trust in,
you renew
your vow
to live,
and shine.
Someone
mistakes this
to mean you’d
had
enough of
time,
and swiftly
writes the closing
line
to a tale
of decades of life.
Who knows,
perhaps,
in your last
few moments
you didn’t
hear that song or
the
whispered uncertainties –
perhaps you
felt an embrace
like the
birthing of a new dawn.
Perhaps –
or so I hope.
Transgender Day Of Remembrance 2018 Tribute.
* Shantee Tucker is a transwoman who was shot - and subsequently died - in Philadelphia, PA, on 5 September 2018. This shortly after she celebrated her 30th birthday. This occurrence is even more hurtful as I had been in Philadelphia mere weeks prior to this happening enjoying being a 30 year old myself. It is forever a reminder that we cannot take our safety for granted whether we are in Gaborone, Philadelphia, or London. The lives and livelihoods of trans-diverse persons (especially people of colour) are in a precarious state and we really ought to all advocate to make the status quo us living rather than being killed.
Of all the things in life I need, This I Knead.
Share With Me.
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