Gender Affirming Care

Nikki Grierson

When I was a girl

Little flurries of hair

Began to sprout

Here and there

At first I didn’t notice

But then something made me care

What if other people see,

Will they point and stare?

This worry, grew in my mind

As I studied the weekly magazine

Where cover girls were smooth

Their skin had a beautiful sheen

Was I a “proper girl”

Like those in “Just Seventeen”

So I began to study

The art of hair removal

Wanting so badly

To gain my peers approval

As to be accepted as a woman

Becoming hairless seemed crucial

Of course I was told

“You are far too young”

“Don’t worry about that, just keep having fun”

But I stopped wearing shorts

In the days that came with sun

And at night I would toss, and I would turn

For me, gender affirming care had most certainly begun

Now it’s triggered

It was here to stay

If I was becoming a woman

I had to look a certain way

Clothing now more important

Than the games I used to play

I started to wish for boobs

I even began to pray!

Eventually we all had bras

And fruity glossy lips

But then came something else

I wanted those womanly hips!

Society was infecting me

With its binary gender grips

And here we are today

Things have gotten worse

As filtered fake images

Keep our hands in our pink purse

Then those trying to demonise

Those who want to live free, diverse

Assuming those who are different

Are nothing but perverse

Helping to maintain the patriarchal curse

More from Nikki Grierson ↓

• @poeticallynikki on Instagram

Mentioned in this episode:

Write After: National Poetry Month with One Poem Only

Write After is a way to encourage poets to listen and write, and use National Poetry Month to highlight how listening to poetry makes us better poets. I know I write the best when I’m surrounded by beautiful poetry–it’s part of the reason I created this podcast, and I want to encourage others to share this practice. We'll get started in April. You can share to #WriteAfterOPO.

#WriteAfterOPO