She Says: a poem by Winifred Yost

Happy Trans Day of Visibility! To celebrate, here is a lovely poem from the June 2023 issue of Worlds of Possibility.

She Says
by Winifred Yost

I am a robot, she says, looking in the parchment mirror, nothing but disposable parts and detachment from a body that isn’t her

I am a werewolf, she says, in the glow of the computer monitor, frowning at the coarse hair covering her body, the thick beard on her face

I am an elf girl, she says, sitting behind rows of polyhedral dice with her friends. If she can be anything she can imagine, why on earth would she be a boy?


I am a man, she says, all day, every day. The biggest fiction of them all, one told to her since birth, spoken by everyone she knows. A growing part of her knows the lie and has for a long time


I am… she says, looking at the different fictions, the half truths reflected in the mirrors she built. With a trepidatious touch, she shatters them.

I am me, she says


And she is free


About the Author

Winifred Yost (she/her) is a trans sapphic transplant to the PNW from the rolling hills of central Texas and a graduate of Viable Paradise. When she isn’t writing she can probably be found playing or watching TTRPGs. Her work has also appeared in Skies of Wonder, Skies of Danger