Misgendering Mouthfuls

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25 lemons to represent being 25 years old, but split in half. Each lemon slice had an invasive comment or question friends, family, and strangers have made to me regarding my body since the social aspect of my transition began in 2013. 

Some lemons read: 

"In my heart of hearts, you will always be my little girl."

"You're going to burn in hell."

"I wanna fuck like we used to fuck."

"You killed my daughter."

I slice each lemon, read each with ease in row for the first round. On the second/final round, I take a bite into the fruit, and read the words again out loud to the audience in front of me.

This is to mark the real lived experience thus far in my life as a Two Spirit, transmasculine person. The aftertaste hurt with both the sting of the lemon but also the remembering of the blatant transphobia.