When I was little I thought “Trans” meant
A vampire from Transylvania,
Then puberty emerged and the word
Turned me inside out,
And although I kept it hidden
Like vampires hide during the day,
I knew instead of fangs I desired breasts
And a magical slit between my legs.
Until adulthood I was softish kind of boy
Shy – an introvert
When I just wanted to be an extrovert
With an extra X in my genes.
I took the gay route for years –
Best friends with women,
Nuzzled against hard-abbed men
And tried my best to appear
Happy, in the old-fashioned sense of gay,
But I hungered underneath
To have the body of a woman
With the curves and hormones,
And a female perspective of the world.
Luck showered me with money,
And honesty lead me to older trans-women
Who smoothed the path a bit
And guided me towards
My own transformation
And my arrival as an able-bodied
Not man,
Not completely woman,
But the person I was meant to be.
©2024 Carl Scott Harker, author of
