In an existence that never knew life,
In journeys where paths were unknown,
Renunciated by life and thrown out to the streets,
It was she who held me, like a sister;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She wiped my tears
With her simple ragged clothes;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Without her,
I\u2019m a boat without an oar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You came as a nameless new bird,
Crossing continents;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not for a lover,
Not for a husband,
But for a rising dawn in hearts wounded by birds of love<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You came with haste<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even when I look around
I am not a kith.
Even when you draw near
I am not a kin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But because our emotions were born together,
We became sisters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You are a bond grown from
Inner purity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You made me breathe
The fresh air of freedom
My heart longed for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We flew across continents
Leaving wounds forgotten behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nature itself joined us
Today, on your birthday,
This is my little gift.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May my words reach your heart
In the drops of your affection,
Even dry trees will bloom!
Happy birthday, my friend!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A plant\u2019s roots
Feed its leaf tips :
The plant\u2019s care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A bird
Feeds its chick in pink mouths
With its strong beak:
The bird\u2019s care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dogs
Though they birth many pups
Eat scraps on the streets
To feed their pups:
The mother dog\u2019s care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mothers nurse with love for their son: \u201cMy son is a man.\u201d
Fathers endure for their daughters: \u201cMother goddess is born as my daughter.\u201d
That is cisgender care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the world shoved me away saying
\u201cWhy are you like this, tranny?\u201d
It was my transgender kin
Who cared enough
To hold me before I fell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Translated from Tamil by Sam Gabriel Ramesh<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cover image by imsogabriel stock<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You made me breathe
\nThe fresh air of freedom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":28764,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3401,4968],"tags":[1295,2497,4544,402,1465,5030,5031,5029,25,45,1225],"class_list":{"0":"post-28763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fiction-poetry","8":"category-friendship-and-sexuality-2","9":"tag-belonging","10":"tag-chosen-family","11":"tag-emotional-intimacy","12":"tag-friendship","13":"tag-healing","14":"tag-lgbtq-poetry","15":"tag-queer-friendship-poems","16":"tag-queer-kinship","17":"tag-sexualities","18":"tag-transgender","19":"tag-transgender-rights"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28763"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28800,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28763\/revisions\/28800"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}