I really enjoyed reading Stephanie Burt’s poem, We Are Mermaids. The poem is ripe with brilliant imagery and metaphor that do a great deal to describe the internal struggle of being a transgender person.

The ocean is presented almost like a landscape in the poem, which hones in on terracentric language to describe those who subscribe to beliefs and lifestyles they are familiar or comfortable with. The full potential of the waters between the surface and the ocean floor are ignored, with the speaker often reassuring the reader that they do not have to leave the water they are comfortable in.

This is followed by the sentiment that it’s okay to be scared to go into the vast, open ocean; the rest of us will be all right out here.

I think this poem has two target audiences. One is transgender people who are afraid to embrace their true identity – in which case the poem is a kind and welcoming invitation to a better, more belonging life. The other is people who are transphobic and who are choosing to keep out of the issue of transgender rights. Either way, the poem paints the ocean (or this more free way of living, unrestricted by the rules and patterns of the land) as a sanctuary thats in reach and ready for you to embrace it.

Embracing the mermaid as a symbol of transgender people is a beautiful way of showing someone who comes from the constraints of land (society) and has embraced the water and turned it into their home (identity). This was a really powerful piece to end the semester with.