Lynne Jones – May 2025

This poem acknowledges that some people avoid conversations about about sexuality and gender. It also speaks about dead naming in families.

Got a poem in a competition, fancy that!
But my mums more interested in talking about 
Brenda’s daughters employers cat.
Whilst mum never mentioned regrets
That we grew up in a household devoid of feline pets
Weird all of her focus now
Is on Brenda’s daughters employers cat meow.

That cat never sat on a mat 
Played the piano nor wore a hat
And yet it is clear to me
Its an easier conversation than gender or sexuality

I’d hope she’d harbour no hate
In a discussion about the trans debate
Cos if she looked she would see
Something of diversity within me
A cross dressing leatherman in a kinky hot three
Her non-binary  grandchildren she doesn’t comprehend
Watching videos  of a cat owned by the employer 
of the daughter of her oldest best friend

If that cat learnt the words to that Charlie XCX and Billie Ellish song
Where the chorus affirmed diversities not wrong
Would my niblings feel more like they belonged
If that cat taught their granny Sam Smith and Kim Petras Unholy song and sang along?

That cat was neutered or spade
Collared, rehomed and renamed
No one calls that cat by its deadname
Respect my niblings just the same.