A poem a week for 2017 - for week 8 - Black trans sisters

I will say your name
Your whisper of a name
Leaves me breathless
I will call you a girl
A woman
A prayer a poet a breath
I will see you

You did not deserve this death
This dragon life
Killed for the audacity to be yourself

We owe you a life
We owe you a flood
Your life mattered
The way you left this world mattered
And says something about the horror
Of who we are

I will say your name
Ciara McElveen
Chyna Gibson
Keke Collier
Mesha Caldwell
Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow
Jojo Striker
There were others before you
May your ghosts be at rest
May we be strong enough to kill only
The weakness of hate in ourselves
I will pronounce all the syllables of your name
Know you like my blood
Like you
Are me