"I Chose To Be Trans" by Robin Gow

I Chose To Be Trans

The most woo-woo thing I believe
is that we have some say as to how we return.
I know that when I was some cosmic tongue
that I spoke the word “trans” and this body followed.
In another life I was a deer. I was trans then, too.
I shed my antlers. The velvet and the gender.
This choice was not one that I belabored. This came
to me like choosing to love someone. An inevitable
gravity that twists your wonderful guts.
I don’t mean any of this in some toxic positive way.
Not like “You are exactly where you’re meant to be”
or “All this is part of the plan.”
There is no plan. There is only our little hungers.
Their lights. Tiny fires on this big ghost.
In that dark I chose to be trans. The worms
ate my hooves and tasted my transness.
Their transness too. Each one of their hearts
once a star. I hope I get to choose this again.


Originally published in Here: A Poetry Journal (Spring 2026)

---

Audio: Robin Gow reads “I Chose To Be Trans”

---

Photo Credit: Rain Black

Robin Gow (any pronouns | todxs pronombres) is a Lambda Literary Award Winning poet and author of both poetry collections for adults and Young Adult and Middle Grade books. He lives with his partner and their menagerie of animals on unceded Lenape land also called Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania.

Select Books:

Our Lady of Perpetual Degeneracy (Tolsun Books)
Lanternfly August (Driftwood Press)
A Million Quiet Revolutions (FSG Books for Young Readers)
Dear Mothman (Amulet Books)
Saber-tooth (Amulet Books)

Website | Instagram | Substack: Your Local Cryptid - Robin Gow