"Escape" a poem by Rufino Blanco Fombona
A poem from the public domain
Intro
A longer intro than usual for this poem…
My country is sending people to offshore torture prisons in order to circumvent the legal system and the rights our Constitution enumerates for all persons (not just citizens—everyone). I hope this evil behavior is stopped, but this country has never lived up to our stated ideals (probably not even 3/5 of them) and has always found excuse to take rights (and lives) from certain groups, so I’m not holding my breath.
If you dehumanize Native Americans or immigrants or black people or Japanese people or transgender people or women enough, you can ignore that the Constitution demands rights for all persons. That’s our past and our present. I hope for a better future.
As a transgender woman, I know that Presidents Trump and Musk, and the rest of the GOP, don’t see me as a person. Trump declared trans people unpersons on Day 1 of his administration. Policies already in place in many states (and nationwide) contribute to the social murder of trans people—especially of black and indigenous trans women.
In response to Trump’s barrage of anti-trans Executive Orders in the first few days of his presidency, I wrote this poem, “Don’t Remember Me for My Resilience.”
The political/legal situation is worsening for trans people. I don’t know if the monsters coming after us will be satisfied with making us second-class citizens or if we too will be shipped off to Trump’s “big, beautiful” torture sites. Either way, I focus on gender euphoria, the intrinsic joy of being my true self.
In today’s selected reading from the public domain, Rufino Blanco Fombona (poets.org bio) focuses on the joys of love while a political prisoner. If the current regime ends up imprisoning and force detransitioning transgender people, I hope that I can dream about who I really am and the sapphic love I share with my wife of 18 years.
Fombona’s poem text, as translated from Spanish by Muna Lee, is below, followed by my video reading.
💜Miranda📚
Escape
The dungeon crushes me—over my restless spirit
Pass dark thoughts unspoken.
My poet’s wings, even in unfolding,
Against four walls are broken.
Entombed and alive! The nights are eternal,
And eternal are the days.
Sorrows companion me, spies are about me,
The fetter upon me weighs.
But on closing my eyes—(light, sky, and meadow!)—
Broken I see my chain.
With my love on my arm I breathe deep in the garden
Of magnolia and vervain.
I delight in the air, in the running water,
Fresh as my belovèd one.
There is still something good despots cannot imprison,
Nor heap chains upon!
My Reading
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