Memoir V
By Roda Avelar
Two women exist inside of me. I’m so transgender
I just do that. One is always
nude—says she’s making up for lost time. She’s light :
holist : touch : break. How can I be
so transgender that no one can see it? I want
to ask so badly: Can you see her? Energypink
& waisttrained & transmogrified & there?
The other thinks about words & optics:
I’m so trans no one can tell.
I’m so trans I’m like the mountains I
travel through, highwayed—
telephonepoled—brushfired.
Out of all the new words, sister
has been the hardest to fit myself into.
Light : holist : tarpouch :
break.
I bottle myself in drips, the trinity
cloud of my efforts horizonlined.
I can always feel myself inching towards it, it,
it is always there. I’m every version
of myself I made, a light inching. How best
can I be your sister?
How can I be that charged?
Source: Poetry (March 2023)