Strange Bouquets

Trigger warning: This depicts the epidemic of transfemicide that decimating Trans Women of Color.

Strange Bouquets
© 2019 Alexandra Rios

Our land’s adorned with strange bouquets,
Blood on the leaves and blood on the flowers.
Trans-women of color who danced in the day
Are slaughtered in the darkest hours.

Her clothes are torn, her face is bloody.
Her body’s twisted, she was thrown,
Left for dead, where the fields are muddy.
Her face is frozen with her final moan.

She found herself, she budded and bloomed.
She was beautiful, but it’s too late.
In this transphobic world she was doomed
To be snuffed out young, a victim of hate.

With thanks and acknowledgement to Abel Meeropol and
Billie Holiday, the writer and singer of “Strange Fruit”,
And to the tireless volunteers of Remembering Our Dead.













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