How to Be a Sixteen-Year-Old Trans Teenager in America, Instructions:

Kit Evans

Never wear your own clothes.
Dig through your brother’s drawers.
Slide on those low-riding men’s jeans.
Buy a chest binder on the internet,
don’t tell your mother. Don’t let her
chop it to shreds with her sewing scissors.
Steal men’s deodorant from the Fred Meyer
near your high school. Slip into too-big sweatshirts,
be shapeless. Razor the waves off your head,
watch it fall in tufts, like it never belonged to you.
Hunch your shoulders in the men’s restroom
to avoid being cornered in a stall. Deepen
your voice. Lower your voice.
Dream of emancipating from your parents.
Dream of dying. Dream of love.
Dream of love that tastes like the microwaved meals
you eat at your boyfriend’s house, where even
the empty beer bottles and cat piss stains on the floor
smell like love.
Find the crevices of good, crevices of here
someone loves me, here no one wants to hurt me.
Live there, if you can.

Kit Evans is a queer, nonbinary poet and writer, born and raised in Oregon. He is a current MFA candidate at Pacific University. His poetry has appeared in THRUSH, The Dewdrop, Hiram Poetry Review, Vagabond City Lit and is upcoming in the Saint and Sinners SASFest 2025 anthology. He resides in Monmouth, Oregon with his best friend, two cats, and several reptiles. His Instagram handle is @bastardizedbug

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