When Asked About Trans Men and Women in Earnest Prayer
True, I don’t make mistakes.
But I was trapped
in a man’s body
thirty-three years
and I killed myself.
—God
How To Pronounce The Word “Black”
First, you must blow a buffalo horn as lament.
Your tongue has to flip to the right
hymn, smirk a bit as you hum.
Silence the song when you tense
as if holding your breath in prayer
before you crack the whip.
Ashanti Anderson is a MFA student in poetry at University of California, Riverside. She was an honorable mention for the Truman Capote Literary Trust Award and her poem, “Ode to Brown,” has been nominated for the 2016 Pushcart Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Furrow, New Voices, and Compose: A Journal of Simply Good Writing.