Shownotes
Gender Affirming Care
Nikki Grierson
When I was a girl
Little flurries of hair
Began to sprout
Here and there
At first I didn’t notice
But then something made me care
What if other people see,
Will they point and stare?
This worry, grew in my mind
As I studied the weekly magazine
Where cover girls were smooth
Their skin had a beautiful sheen
Was I a “proper girl”
Like those in “Just Seventeen”
So I began to study
The art of hair removal
Wanting so badly
To gain my peers approval
As to be accepted as a woman
Becoming hairless seemed crucial
Of course I was told
“You are far too young”
“Don’t worry about that, just keep having fun”
But I stopped wearing shorts
In the days that came with sun
And at night I would toss, and I would turn
For me, gender affirming care had most certainly begun
Now it’s triggered
It was here to stay
If I was becoming a woman
I had to look a certain way
Clothing now more important
Than the games I used to play
I started to wish for boobs
I even began to pray!
Eventually we all had bras
And fruity glossy lips
But then came something else
I wanted those womanly hips!
Society was infecting me
With its binary gender grips
And here we are today
Things have gotten worse
As filtered fake images
Keep our hands in our pink purse
Then those trying to demonise
Those who want to live free, diverse
Assuming those who are different
Are nothing but perverse
Helping to maintain the patriarchal curse
More from Nikki Grierson ↓
Mentioned in this episode:
Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem Only
Write After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice.
We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.
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