Glen Brown: Epitaph for a Transsexual

He liked feminine things

as far back as I can remember:

high-heel shoes, scarves, purses,


dancing before mirrors.

School was a horror.

He preferred hopscotch to relay races,


jump rope to baseball.

I imagine a woman in search of her body,

a hijacked plane touched down


in a strange place,

or a photograph of someone else

in unfamiliar clothes.


He played out his life in a foreign film

with no subtitles, with no critics

to rave in reviews, no one


to laud his impersonation.

He was less reality than dream,

more imagination than possibility,


and he lived a life without a plot

and point of view,

like a poorly written story


filled with questions and no answers.

I think of a woman I did not know,

of a sister I wish I had.



(John-David died from complications caused by AIDS on June 3, 1987. He was 26 years old).

--

Copyright 2021 Glen Brown
 

First published in Willow Review.