A Hint of Humanity Was Asked, But You Denied Even That

Your mouth 

can muster the names

Muhammad Ali

and Bob Dylan

and not insist upon

Cassius Clay and 

Robert Zimmerman

You can oblige 

the change from 

Prince Rogers Nelson

to a singular moniker 

or even, for a time,

(insert image here)

Reginald Dwight

mourning the loss

of Norma Jean Mortenson

is not the way you 

would have described

“Candle in the Wind”

You don’t insist

that the butler in 

The Dark Knight

was played by

Maurice Micklewhite

You can call Robert Diggs 

by the name RZA

and Alecia Moore

by the name of a color

So why do you balk

when asked by a 

transgender individual

to accept their chosen name?

As if someone else

needed to ask 

your permission

in order to define

their own existence

Written February 2, 2020