Viaticum

My poetry works to increase representation of FTM men in poetry, a minimally represented identity, and make meaningful contributions to the way this identity is discussed or analyzed. My poetry focuses on critically thinking about the experience of a transgender man’s identity and his family’s interactions with that identity. The manuscript will challenge Jay Prosser’s idea that the initial self ceases to exist or dies when a transgender person transitions. If transition metaphorically kills the previous self, every transitioning transgender person innately comes with tragedy. Prosser’s idea also leads to a strain in parent-child relationships when a child comes out as transgender, insofar as the parent begins to mourn the child in the presence of the child. To retain the initial self through transition, the poetry will recreate aspects of childhood with which the transman still identifies. My poetry does not always adhere to the chronological order of transition to disrupt the idea of moving from wrong body to right body as sole transition/transgender narrative. I create small narratives of experiences within the transman’s identity that refuse to disidentify with the pre-transition self, instead of strict narrativization. The poetry creates the trans experience for the reader through common interactions relating to FTM identity. The subject shifts, not due to changing self, but due to the changing outward interactions. By critiquing the importance of the narrativization, the manuscript opens the trans identity to people who identify with their past self.