A Poem for Transgender Day of Remembrance 2022

Hello lovelies. This Poetry Friday (hosted this week by the wonderful Jama over at Jama's Alphabet Soup), I'm sharing a poem I wrote today for Transgender Day of Remembrance, which is this Sunday (Nov. 20). This is a day when the LGBTQIA+/Queer community gathers to remember the lives of our transgender family who have been lost in the past year.

Please note that people grieve in different ways. If you find this topic triggering, please know that I value you, and your self care is important. If you choose not to read, I support your choice. If you are an LGTBQIA+/Queer person in need of support, The Trevor Project is always open via phone, text, and chat. If you are a person looking to support LGBTQIA+/Queer folks during this time, please consider donating to The Trevor Project or your local homeless youth shelter. It is a sad reality that many of our family are made homeless during this time of year, and your local youth shelters will likely be supporting many of us in the coming months.

The numbers in this poem are the current (as of today) numbers on the "Remembering Our Dead" page, which can be found here. This page also contains a slideshow of our known transgender family members to die this past year, and other information-- such as obituaries and photos to use while honoring their lives and grieving their loss.

Thank you for reading.

TRANSGENDER DAY OF REMEMBRANCE 2022

390 reports found

295 violence

52 suicide

11 medical

8 custodial

24 uncategorized

even your death erased

we hold your memory gently,

like tissue paper origami

pressed into a shape not quite discernible

because the creases won’t stay sharp, and

entropy tries to undo the folds

but can’t

since we cup you in our palms—

the self you created by

pressing love into your truth,

tucking away corners, redefining your edges…

because you were more complicated, more beautiful

than any pattern you were given.

390 reports found,

and for those unfound

reams of tissue paper

we dust off.