Trans Doors

by Ellen Riggle

Image credit: Akriti Singh on Unsplash

Imagine

     child of seven

     barely pubescent eleven

     still forming sixteen

standing

facing

two doors

     one door     relic of the past

     the other     vision of the future

arms hanging

shoulders slumped

shallow breath

lips together

eyes transfixed

two doors

     one door     forced to fit

     the other     authentic truth portal

beyond the two doors

     youthful yelling

     exaggerated laughter

     delightful shriek

     conversations murmur

     water splashes

a third door awaits

     proffered to ostracize

     isolate

     no laughter

     no delight

     no conversation

     lone stream of water

Imagine

     the strength     the will     to live

     essential          to walk     through a door

***

Ellen Riggle

Ellen D.B. Riggle, PhD, is an award-winning professor and author with a semi-serious hiking habit. Their essays and poems are published in numerous outlets, including Does it Have Pockets, Earth's Daughters, Rise Up Review, and Writers Resist. They are author of over 100 academic articles, and co-Executive Producer of the short documentary, Becoming Myself: Positive Trans & Nonbinary Identities (available to stream on YouTube).