Ren Wilding
Resistance
After Rebecca Solnit
I am a penguin
with my back to the cold
I am a musk ox with horns
facing the wolf
I want my turn at the center
of a reindeer cyclone
protected as their young
inside a whirling ring
of bodies and hooves
I want to be soft
but I’m afraid
the inside of the circle
will be gone soon
how many laws
are you willing to break
to keep the predators at bay
or will you give up
join with the wolves
On January 20, 2025, I Thought of My Own Grave
I never wanted a grave,
just scatter my ashes
or keep them in a jar.
But if I die because
of government violence,
I want a fucking grave.
I want children to come
on school tours
and teachers to say:
the name on this headstone
is one this person chose.
They were openly trans.
They loved themself
and did not stop
even when the government
tried to take everything.
No one could take
their love.
I want trans children
to know someone fought
so they could be here,
so they could grow up,
so they could grow old.
I don’t want flowers.
I only want graves
dug when we die old,
asleep in beds in quiet moments
when our loves have left the room.
Loves who will put the names
we chose on memorial pamphlets.
Memorials filled with all our loves.
I want us to come, to live,
and go from life adored.
If this isn’t forgotten,
if we never go back—
You can use my body,
my headstone
to build this world.
Ren Wilding (they/them) is a trans, queer, neurodivergent poet who earned an MA in Literature and Gender Studies from the University of Missouri. Their work appears in Braving the Body (Harbor Editions), The Comstock Review, One Art, Palette Poetry, Pine Hills Review, Red Eft Review, Tulip Tree, Zoetic Press, and elsewhere. They were a finalist for Lily Poetry Review’s Paul Nemser Prize, have received a Pushcart nomination, and are co-curator of the Words Like Blades reading series. Their chapbook, Trans Artifacts: Bones Between My Teeth, is forthcoming from Porkbelly Press in 2026.
