Ethan Smith A Letter to the girl I used to be

Dear Emily,

Every time I watch baseball a voice
I no longer recognize whispers
“Ethan, do you remember?
When you were gonna be the first girl in the major leagues-
Seattle Mariners. Rally cap.”

To be honest, Emily, I don’t.
Dad told me that like it was someone else’s bedtime story.

But I know you had that drive,
didn’t let anyone tell you to wear shorts above your knees
didn’t care if boys thought your hair fell on your shoulders just right
but with girls
sleepovers meant the space between your shoulder and hers was a 6-inch fatal territory.

The year you turned eleven was the first time you said out loud
that you didn’t want to live anymore.
In therapy you said you wouldn’t make it to 21.
On my 21st birthday I thought about you,
you were right.

At nineteen you started to fade.
I tried to cross you out like a line
in my memoir I wished I could erase completely.
And maybe I’m misunderstanding the definition of death
but even though parts of you still exist you are not here-
most of my friends have never heard your name until now.

I’ve been trying to write this letter for six months.
I still can’t decide if it should be an apology or not.
But now you will never hear “Emily Smith” announced at a college graduation,
get married, have children.

I made the appointment,
to let a doctor remove your breasts so that
I could stand up straighter.
Now even if I somehow had those children,
I wouldn’t be able to nourish them.
My body will be obsolete,
scarred cosmetic, but never C-section.

I was four days late
they will never be grandparents
I was one week late
they will never hold their lover’s sleeping figure.
I was eleven days late
they will never breathe in a sunset and sunrise in the same night.
I was two weeks late
they will never learn to jump rope.
I was three weeks late
they will never shout “Watch Mommy! Watch me on the slide!

I was two months late.
A piece of us will never wrap their arms around our leg for comfort,
or just to keep them from falling down.

And I am, sorry,
that this process is so slow
and all you can do is wonder if you ever had a place.
You did.
You still do.
Don’t forget that.

Yours,
Ethan

p.s. I never hated you.

Analysis

I chose " A letter to the girl I use to be" because if you don't understand what it is like being trapped inside of the wrong body you will never understand a transgender man. This spoken word is about a male who is writing to the younger girl version of himself who name is Emily. The reason I chose the pronoun he is because transgender male or female prefer you to use the perfect pronoun pertaining to who they are now as a human being. So Ethan is going back into the days where his name use to be "Emily". In the poem Ethan states, "Every time I watch baseball a voice I no longer recognize whispers “Ethan, do you remember? When you were gonna be the first girl in the major leagues-Seattle Mariners. Rally cap.”  Ethan is referring to the inner voice that use to be him as a young girl who name use to be Emily. Emily was reminding Ethan about the time when he was young and he wanted to be the first girl baseball league player. Ethan uses simile in her spoken word when she stated, At nineteen you started to fade. I tried to cross you out like a line in my memoir I wished I could erase completely. And maybe I’m misunderstanding the definition of death but even though parts of you still exist you are not here-most of my friends have never heard your name until now." To me Ethan was trying to forget how he use to be Emily so he tried to kill her out his life by not thinking of her and focus more on becoming his true self Ethan. 

Ethan's memory of Emily is fading because he choose to escape his hostage life of remaining a girl when in reality he was feeling like his voice was not being heard but the rememberance of Emily kept showing up in his life. Ethan said,  made the appointment, to let a doctor remove your breasts so that I could stand up straighter." Ethan was referring to him taking the charge for once in life to remove his breast so he can be proud of who he wanted to honestly be seen as which is Ethan Smith and not Emily Smith. Ethan felt trapped in the wrong body. HE wanted to feel free so he removed his breast. Ethan also said My body will be obsolete, scarred cosmetic, but never C-section." What he meant was at least his body will be the way he wanted it to be and not that of a female any more. Ethan wanted to walk in his truth.