(no subject)
The Blanket of Blue
“You’ll be a man,” her father said
If only her parents knew,
That the lies began the day of her birth,
She was wrapped in a blanket of blue.
“Your child is a boy,” the doctor said,
And usually it’s true
But this one was a different child
A girl disguised in blue.
Small and growing, boys and girls
Were different in toys and hair in curls
Bikes and clothes and things to do
Separated by pink and blue.
That childish life came to an end
A tomboy became a man
Trapped inside, she lost her friends
They could not understand.
“He can’t pay attention,” the doctors said,
“His mind is not at ease,”
That ease eluded, the team concluded,
Because of a mental breeze
They could not see who she was inside
The hidden, inner girl
She wanted no more than to explore
To be a woman of the modern world
But that world had shown her, to be herself,
Was only an object of shame,
When she tried to tell them her feelings,
She could not give them a name
“You’ll take these pills,” the doctors said,
“They will help your mind aim true,”
But all they did was stifle her heart,
Strangled with a chain of blue
Chemically obscured, her cries unheard,
She fled through the long years,
While all along, the pain grew strong,
Fed thousands of unshed tears
Her pain grew thoughts, and twisted plots,
And inner demons grave,
She knew that she would have to face,
If her life she was to save
A late winter’s evening, some years on,
Came a soft cry in the night,
“I am a woman,” she quickly said,
She was overcome with fright
The words were bared, it could not be spared,
Her world she would have to make right
Hidden by lies, her soul’s secret lair,
Opened finally to the light.
We are many, more than you know,
Your daughters and your sons,
We are as different as anyone else,
And all have our battles to be won
“You are our child,” her father said,
When at last her family knew,
The lies lay dead one late summer day,
Her freedom was a sky of blue.
-- KLB
September 17, 2008
“You’ll be a man,” her father said
If only her parents knew,
That the lies began the day of her birth,
She was wrapped in a blanket of blue.
“Your child is a boy,” the doctor said,
And usually it’s true
But this one was a different child
A girl disguised in blue.
Small and growing, boys and girls
Were different in toys and hair in curls
Bikes and clothes and things to do
Separated by pink and blue.
That childish life came to an end
A tomboy became a man
Trapped inside, she lost her friends
They could not understand.
“He can’t pay attention,” the doctors said,
“His mind is not at ease,”
That ease eluded, the team concluded,
Because of a mental breeze
They could not see who she was inside
The hidden, inner girl
She wanted no more than to explore
To be a woman of the modern world
But that world had shown her, to be herself,
Was only an object of shame,
When she tried to tell them her feelings,
She could not give them a name
“You’ll take these pills,” the doctors said,
“They will help your mind aim true,”
But all they did was stifle her heart,
Strangled with a chain of blue
Chemically obscured, her cries unheard,
She fled through the long years,
While all along, the pain grew strong,
Fed thousands of unshed tears
Her pain grew thoughts, and twisted plots,
And inner demons grave,
She knew that she would have to face,
If her life she was to save
A late winter’s evening, some years on,
Came a soft cry in the night,
“I am a woman,” she quickly said,
She was overcome with fright
The words were bared, it could not be spared,
Her world she would have to make right
Hidden by lies, her soul’s secret lair,
Opened finally to the light.
We are many, more than you know,
Your daughters and your sons,
We are as different as anyone else,
And all have our battles to be won
“You are our child,” her father said,
When at last her family knew,
The lies lay dead one late summer day,
Her freedom was a sky of blue.
-- KLB
September 17, 2008