The International Foundation for Gender Education

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapesty #097, Spring 2002.



Tapestry?s 2001 Poetry Contest
First Place





To the Gift of My Body I Give



by Tucker Lieberman



To the gift of my body I give

More and more podules of sunlight!

Raiments of wax cells hold tight

To the gift of my body. I give

Frothings of cardinal madtrack,

Eucalyptus and gold, all flowing back

To the gift. Of my body I give

One great eliminix birthhorse

Heave; one jump from a grand spiral force

To the gift of my body I give.





Tucker Lieberman is a 21-year-old FTM living in Providence, RI. He will graduate from Brown University with the Class of

2002.







Second Place



A Psalm to Our Selves



by Vernon Maylsby



We try to sing our own songs

in the language of our oppressors

Fracture our fragile identity alliance

Along lines of race and class

as taught by our oppressors

We try to define ourselves

with words written by another kind

We see ourselves, distorted, unclear

Through the lens of our oppressors

To sing our songs, to our own souls

We need to see ourselves as we are

A unique and special people, whose seeds

are scattered all over the society spectrum

We are a people represented throughout time

We need wordsmiths, of our kind

To midwife our visions, our definitions

So our speech will speak to us, our hearts

To heal our souls, as we sing our songs.







Third Place



Someone Else?s Words



by Zythyra Basha



Call me Sir, Madam

Mr., Ms.

Boy, Girl

Man, Woman

Dude, Chic

Whatever you need to see

It?s all the same to me

Someone else?s words

That cannot begin to describe my reality



Transvestite, Transsexual

Cross-dresser, Gender-bender

Drag Queen, Female Impersonator

Berdache, Androgyne

Whatever you think you see

Doesn?t look that way to me

Someone else?s words...



How many genders are there?

Does anyone really know?

Does it even matter?

I don?t think so



There are many places to live

Between the boxes labeled

Male

and

Female





Zythyra Basha is a long-time acoustic musician, writer, teacher and activist. Zythyra and partner are co-founders of It?s

Time, NH!, a statewide chapter of It?s Time, America!, a national organization devoted to advocacy and education for

gender-variant persons and their allies.Zythyra was also a board member of PFLAG-NH for a two year tenure. Zythyra identifies

as M2F2? (at least for this week), likes to cook vegetarian food, prefers to not use gender pronouns and resides in the lakes

region of NH with partner, child and cat.