Scheherazade Talks Current Events

I wish you would stop finding me here - people may say we’re in love.

But I’m not your police scanner, your News Channel 10, or your Facebook newsfeed.

I’m a human being, and it isn’t my job to be your one-woman information station.

You ask me to tell you a story. Which one this time?

You want a story where sisters are silenced, are slain, and culprits walk free? There is no

justice in these stories; good does not triumph over evil in my world.

Perhaps you are not ready for the cognitive dissonance this causes.

You’ve seen the hashtags: #transisbeautiful, #girlslikeus, #sayhername.

Sentimental, but activists with armchairs aren't the saviors we need.

Silence is compliance, and social media shares do nothing

but expedite us to early tombs. Don’t interrupt me, I know what I’m saying.

If you don’t like the way this story ends, I’ll tell you another.

I’ll tell you about how one of us dies every twenty-nine hours.

Drugged, shot, stabbed, raped, sodomized, diced up, strangled, dead.

One in twelve if you’re white, one in eight if you’re not. I don’t like these odds.

They tell me to ignore it, to just live life, be fabulous, but how can I

when everything (even my restroom use) is monitored, analyzed, commented on?

You can’t ignore what’s all around you. You can only grow resigned.

I don’t much like the way these stories end, either. I’m sorry if you’re

growing tired. I’m wide awake – hypervigilance and all.

I hope that I can write my own ending – stalling isn’t doing us any good.

#thevenuscomplex #poetry #transphobia #activism #news