Watchman at the Door

This one is more political. It’s in response to the epigram at the beginning. I can take out —as I think the poem stands on its own. This could work for DYAD/Survival (themed) or as my Poet’s Choice (different judges I see, but the themed juedge is a queer writer I noticed) Which fits best for the themed entry do you think?

Epigram

KANSAS: EMPORIA, GREAT BEND, DODGE CITY, GARDEN CITY
Several transgender men in bright yellow “SB 244 Compliance Crew” T-shirts traveled across Kansas, using women’s restrooms in an act of malicious compliance with SB 244, an anti-transgender law requiring people to use public facilities based on a doctor’s observation of their genitals at birth.

Watchman at the Door

There is no need for a watchman
at the bathroom door,
no one to inspect the body
I brought into this world,

no one to unfold a birth certificate
to prove who she is, to grant permission.
No one to ask what was between her legs
the day she was born.

Now, she walks through a doorway
to wash her hands,
to fix her hair,
to stand before a mirror
and see the woman looking back.

Must someone stop her
and search the past
for proof?

Why must a stranger become
the keeper of her body,
the watchman at the threshold?

Let the doors remain open,
a passage, a small mercy
between the world
and the self.

No watchman.
No checking.
No looking backward.

Just a woman
walking through
the door.
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(34 lines)