Each time they write us further into struggle:
scratching us from the list of their protections,
severing the lifelines upon which we depend,
slandering us before crowds aching for an enemy –
we mourn the poison of their policies and proclamations.
Time collapses in the sharing of our grief.
Elders and transcestors come with their knowing wisdom.
Bringing their lessons of survival
but also the joys they cultivated in the sanctuaries of their own making.
Futures, too, unfold around us.
The children who will hope to bloom and blossom freely,
beside us, within us, before us, call us to courage and care.
Planting our roots in the long lineages that made us,
we remember: we are a people both tender and fierce.
We will not hand over our soft hearts to their rigid minds.
We will not let our precious lives,
our sacred offerings,
our holy fight
be extinguished by their violence.
We remain:
Capable of taking care of each other.
Connected to the wisdoms we bear.
We remain:
trans beloveds and gender wonders,
glorious in our divine incarnations,
Try as some may to restrain our power,
we are accompanied across time and space.
We are ferocious with love for each other.
And we will remain.
m jade kaiser