Bathrooms are not the only battleground for transgender rights. Peter LaBerge speaks in the persona of a Connecticut trans girl, incarcerated alongside men.
—
Doe
Connecticut Holds Transgender Girl in Adult Prison
-New Haven Register
What I have
in this tight mouth
are two sentences
I drank from the river.
My name is Jane.
Once, my father taught
me how to swim. I was
emptied into his oval
tub. Momma’s lipstick
still bleeding from my lips.
Above the skin, there was
no red as true. Water
brought in its cast-
iron buckets. I was lifted
into it as a prayer. In this river
there is no god for a boy like me.
Just the rain, the language
it speaks against the tin roof.
***
Originally published in Zone 3.
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Photo by Jim Morrison /Flickr