A poem about loving my agender partner and how Putin hates trans people because they represent a deep freedom of personhood that threatens authoritarianism.

This poem was inspired by Putin's recent 'annexation' (in quotes because it is illegitimate) speech, where he managed to toss in some anti-trans garbage in between the global domination rhetoric.

He boasts successful annexation
An insult to consent
No issue on this planet
Polls at 99 percent

As he declared the cities his
To rationalize a nuke
He assailed on other matters
Which we must too rebuke

He spoke of nonbinary people
And asserted we've gone mad
For affirming children can be loved by parents
That are neither mom nor dad

A “crime against humanity” 
And “threat” to Russian kids
This comment in particular 
Made me completely sick

As if he hadn’t bombed a building 
Just a few months prior
With the word “children” painted atop
He has killed many diapers

He called them a "perversion" 
That bring "degradation" and "extinction"
Doubling down on his delusion 
The global problem isn't him

Perhaps it isn't they nor them 
Who make that world less safer
It's almost as if murderous dictators
Cause quite a bit of mayhem

As a woman who studies war
I read of what men like him do 
And in between my readings
I get to hold hands with you 

My you is they 
I see their face
As I read on through his speech 

The hatred 
Undergirding it 
Is all I really glean

He says "the US set a precedant" 
Perhaps in more ways than one
Like how to assert love’s total sovereignty
Despite the barrels of your guns

I wake up and I choose them
As I face each day 
Knowing a man that we have never known 
Would like to take it all away 

The option to express
A necessity for peace
He fears the way they walk the world
As they're a sign you can be free

A deep freedom of personhood 
Which cannot be sustained 
By merit of existing 
They/them threaten his reign

As I skated away 
With their chapstick on my teeth 
I think of Russians just like us
And I wish they too were free