WE ARE MORE PRECIOUS THAN ANY METAL & MORE HOLY THAN ANY PSALM
Joss Barton
April — June 2020
This work acts to re-align and re-animate our minds to the power, resilience, and lineage of love that lives inside trans women, trans sisterhoods, and trans femme communities across time and space.
As trans women, as trans femmes, as trans mothers, and as trans daughters, we know far too well the violent and sinister consequences that come with the many historical and systematic erasures on our lives and our importance to our communities. This piece acts to reclaim that narrative by exposing both the scars and the strength found within our hearts. The poem acts as both a visual declaration on the deep well of love that blooms within trans women as well as a mirror reflecting how we adapt to survive in a hostile world.
The love we parade inside our souls is precious, it is holy, it something we protect fiercely, and it is something one should behold in wonder and reverence.
About
JOSS BARTON is a writer, journalist, and spoken word performance artist exploring and documenting queer and trans* life, love, and liberation. Her work blends femme-fever dreams over the soundtrack of the American nightmare. She resides and writes in Saint Louis, Missouri.