Maxie // Allen

by Arielle LeJarde

Maxie Allen is what she named her

Stipendiary little daughter

Pink ribbons were in her hair

“It’s a girl!” balloons everywhere

 

But as she grew, year by year

The pink ribbons she wore with cheer

Didn’t feel like hers anymore

The pink color became a chore

 

Late at night in bed, she laid

Thinking how she was afraid

To tell her sister and her mother

That she would rather be called a brother

 

Maxie Allen was confused

Could gender be something to choose?

She did not know how this could be

That “she” could change into a “he”

 

At 21 she mustered up the voice

To tell her mother of her choice

Maxie Allen said to her,

“Mom, I know you raised a girl

But that just isn’t who I am,

I hope that you can understand”

 

“Maxie Allen,” the last time she called her

Stipendiary little daughter

“I always knew and I don’t mind,

I think Allen will be just fine.”

 

 

Gwendolyn Brook’s “Maxie Allen” immediately stuck out to me because of the simple form, rhythm, and rhyme. The sing-song flow made the poem easy to read – almost like a nursery rhyme, but it didn’t take away from the impactful message and had an ironic juxtaposition with the complex words that Brooks used in the poem. This kind of tension is something I wanted to use in my poem with a strong, almost taboo message written in a form easy enough for a child to read.

“Maxie Allen” starts off with the line:

Maxie Allen always taught her

Stipendiary little daughter

 

which reminded me of the debate of nature versus nurture in gender roles and gender performance. In my poem, I twisted the poem to make Maxie Allen the child who is questioning who she is and if she is able to choose her gender although she is taught to perform her given female gender by wearing a certain color and type of clothing. Because she was confused about who she really was and what she was brought up to be, she felt like a monster in her own skin.

I liked the fact that this poem was written almost like it was meant for a child to read because as children, we are taught to act, dress, and think a certain way. If children were given material like this to read, they would not feel the need to hide who they are from others – because who you really are is normal despite what idea of femininity and masculinity is enforced upon you. Transgender and cisgender are not new and have been going on from the beginning of time, but is only now being brought to the surface and it is important for people at a young age to know about too so they do not feel like they’re alone.