he wandered for a year
among corpses and deserted buildings
one morning everyone had gone mad
and each body he found was
riddled with bullets
every cartridge emptied, every magazine spent

he hoped that, now,
since he really was the last man on earth
if he could find a woman,
he might finally get some action
but that seemed less likely
with each new sunset

animals avoided him
he thought, not out of fear
but out of some kind of pity

the supermarkets were still stocked
even though the fresh food had rotted
cans and boxes were plentiful
the food had expiration dates
years in advance
cereal bars and beef jerky

he never spotted another person
man or woman
and after a while
he stopped talking even to himself
he knew he’d never be able to bury the dead
not all of them
not even all of the ones
in…

I know the family of the writer of this letter, Isabel Rose. Her family is one of the most prominent and philanthropic families in New York City. The Rose family endowed major gifts to the New York Public Library, the Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum, and many other major cultural institutions.

She wrote a public letter to Ivanka Trump, from one mother to another. She wrote about her child, who is transgender. It was incredibly brave of her to tell her story in public. The letter is beautifully written, sincere, and heartfelt.

I hope Ivanka reads it.

I am posting only a portion. I hope you will read it in its entirety.

My name is Isabel Rose and I bet if we played a quick game of Six Degrees of Separation we would discover many mutual acquaintances. This shouldn’t come as a…

behind me the cat sleeps
on a little fleece bed
i can see her breathing
in that almost imperceptible
mockery of slow motion

i just wanted to remind you
that there is something warm here
with a beating heart
and it doesn’t matter
the size of the muscle

I knew it was coming, but it still broke my heart to see the news yesterday.  Our federal government has officially turned its back on one of the most vulnerable groups in our society: Transgender children like mine.

Here in my dark blue state, my kiddo is pretty insulated (for now – more trouble is brewing), but I shudder to think what’s in store for the kids everywhere else. They are now at the mercy of whatever misinformed, bigoted policies their local governments and schools districts choose to cook up.

Debi Jackson:  Mom. Warrior. Hero. 

It’s a coincidence that I just happened to finish this podcast episode. It’s about a woman with a child like mine who lives in one of the many states where I wouldn’t dream of living, now that it’s open season on trans kids.  Listen to Red State Mama. This mama will rock your…