Sara Hovda | what is a woman | Glass: A Journal of Poetry

Sara Hovda is a transgender woman from rural Minnesota. She currently attends the MFA program at UC-Riverside while also working as an online entertainer. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in magazines such as Passages North, Nimrod, and Shō Poetry Journal, among others.

Sara Hovda's Website

Also by Sara Hovda: Neurosis Milligrams “Sing in me, Muse”

Previously in Glass: A Journal of Poetry: this man suit Faggot Regrets Not Coming Out Sooner

October 15, 2025

Sara Hovda

what is a woman

⚧ one candle borrows another’s fire without diminishment I take womanhood two milligrams at a time ⚧ faggot o internet pervert what you named me he-she shemale how language sticks tranny like burdock to my jeans mutilated male murder words suicide even when true statistic fail ⚧ when the surgeon sutured my face back together he left one spot numb just above the chin he said it might last a year he said maybe forever what remains of the man ⚧ an old term burns up a wick runs out please a new one stiff in recycled wax plant it in my throat slowly until what you call me is who I am I’ll glow ⚧ my voice so low you can hear the earth you call me a clearing scarred by human feet you call me a fist broken against a tree you call me first stone golem you’ve ever met ⚧ a word snaps like a pine nut a word breaks like a steed a word trails like comet dust a word is need ⚧ I’ll bury myself knee-deep with carrot flowers pink and purple openings I’ll share their water I’ll become while you’re not looking ⚧ a candle drips down the side of itself wax for a new candle a hormone drips down the side of itself to gender new form a word drips down the side of itself to form a new language

This poem came about at the beginning of my MFA program, fall of 2024, based on a prompt from Katie Ford to try to explore with more depth and breadth what gender and womanhood mean to me. It may be the first poem I'm truly happy with since I spent some years away from writing, during which I came to terms with being transgender, spent time as a Twitch streamer, and then returned to poetry, unable to endure any longer the idea of not writing. This poem brought me back to thoughts on language and meaning-making, which pre-transition I'd had fun with in my work, often in an ironic, heady way, but since transitioning my relationship to these ideas has been more visceral and earnest. So here we are: a look at how others' language tries to shape our identity and how to grow and become even when there are attacks from all sides.