Kalki Subramaniam
no. 7, The Nonbinary Issue
Summer 2022
You and I,
We Are Everything
“We may live apart, but we live alike.”
Bindiya, You and I, We live apart Yet we think alike. Our struggles and blood: The colors are the same. Our moans and cries: The shrieks are the same, The decibels the same. Your trauma Is my trauma too And it has been our trauma. In shouting for our kind We may have lost Our times, Our youth, Our relationships. But we will be known; History would remember us With respect, So never turn To regret.
We live in our triumphs That emerged from Our traumas, Our hearts are steel Yet they are warm. Hold them happy And healthy, For we need to live As icons for the others. We may not have money, Yet we have a roof, We have hearts Full of pride, Eyes full of light. We smile, We laugh, We dance In who we are. That is us. We belong. We always will. We may live apart Yet we live alike. We are the rainbows That never fade. We are embodiment Of all colors, All genders, All energies. We belong. You and I, We are everything.
“The people living in these buildings, they’re safe. At least they can sleep peacefully at night. There’s security, there are amenities. It should be so that everyone has these things, shouldn’t it? She sighed wearily. “When that will happen, only Allah knows.”
Read no. 7’s feature, The Guru Who Said No.
Kalki Subramaniam is a transgender activist, artist, entrepreneur, poet, actor, and speaker from Pollachi, India. She is the founder of the Sahodari Foundation, an organization that advocates for the Indian transgender population through innovative art projects, and was one of the activists responsible for the milestone 2014 victory in which the Supreme Court of India finally recognized the transgender community’s civil rights.
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