Reflection

                        𝑹𝒆𝒇𝒍𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔

                                           ᴮʸ· ᴵᵈˡᵉ

In childhood photographs

I am a blur of motion

Always running from the camera

As if somehow I knew

The lens could capture

What I wasn't ready to see

My reflection was a stranger

Speaking in borrowed vowels

Wearing hand-me-down expectations

Like ill-fitting Sunday clothes

While underneath my skin

A different truth was growing

At thirteen I cut my hair

In secret bathroom ceremonies

Watching pieces of disguise

Fall like autumn leaves

Around my feet

Each snip a revelation

The word "trans" found me

Like a key finds its lock

Clicking into place

In the quiet dark of 3 AM

While the world slept

I finally woke up

When I spoke my truth

Some doors slammed shut

The echoes of rejection

Rattled through my bones

But in their wake

I learned to build my own doorways

Pain taught me origami

How to fold myself smaller

Until I nearly disappeared

But love taught me

How to unfold again

Into my full wingspan

I found family in unlikely gardens

Growing wild and free

Among others who understood

The courage it takes

To become yourself

In a world of copies

Now my reflection and I

Have made our peace

In this body I've carved

From marble and starlight

Strong enough to shelter

The boy I always was

My voice has found its timber

Rich with hard-won truth

Speaking in cadences

That finally feel like home

While gratitude blooms

In the chambers of my heart

For all who came before me

Lighting the way with 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘦

For those who walk beside me

Sharing strength and stories

For those who'll come after

Following their own stars home

I am a tapestry of scars

And celebrations, woven

With threads of persistence

Each stitch a testament

To surviving the storm

And learning to dance in the rain

In the mirror now

I see myself complete

Not perfect, but 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤

A man built from dreams

And determination

Finally standing in his truth

#curatorreview