who's ponds?

when i’m swimming in the ponds

i belong.

my body becomes a portal

through space and i… i am here.

present.

held, weightless in this body of water

i’ve rarely caught a closer glimpse, my anxiety

limp a i swim laps… in euphoria. my fury recedes, as I release my

self. i am free

*

and yet. as quickly as I forget, the rigidity

of language, all its rules; the power of the word,

my body as blurred legal tender,

this momentary bliss, ungendered

it hits fast again

as i pull my being back to the grassy earth + mud

where a victimised terf thuds their rhetoric around, proud

to have found something to do with their day.

they don’t look directly at me, for i pass

as cisgender, compliant in a phantasm rendered

in ignorance.

i shall not victimise my self,

aesthetically placed on a ‘higher’ shelf,

my inner reality safely hidden from

what they want forbidden from their sight.

trans bodies.

yeah, trans bodies is their fear.

i towel myself down as i overhear transphobic

comments to my fellow queer.

her presence more physical, her transness more visible,

A MAN! GET OUT YOU‘RE A MAN! A SCAM! YOU’RE NOT WELCOME HERE!

she stands

in her robe, completely exposed.

dozens turn to observe all the fuss.

the terfs are alive, fired up by the chance to

exercise their phobic stance,

spitting hate into a space which for years

has been the safest place, a haven, a grace,

now tarnished by a minority’s taste for exclusion.

who here is the intruder?

who here is deluded by hate?

their rampant chase for a scapegoat

to take the weight, shoulder the blame

for all the actual wrongdoings in the world?

who here is lashing out, splashing about, unsettling the waters?

has no one taught you? you ought to take a breath

before you dive in;

understand the depths, before

attempting to swim.

stop planting weeds in our eden,

chanting needlessly as we simply swim

to belong

who’s ponds? our ponds.

you are not the centre of it all.

you, too, could be wrong. could belong.

take a breath.

let the waters wash over you, immerse your self, catch a glimpse, let your anxiety go limp and,

put simply,

.

.

.

s w i m . . .

further reading:

Good Law Project - petition

City of London statement - 26th November 2025.

Hampstead Heath Ladies Pond and Transphobia - article

Evening Standard - summer article

Telegraph - (paywalled)

Sex Matters - (well-funded trans-exclusive feminists)*

*there is commentary on here that, at its core, suggests the male body is in itself a weapon to be feared; there is an assumption that possession of a penis means that the person who adorns said penis is a predator. i am not negating the very real fear of sexual abuse from those assigned male at birth, a serious issue which statically is higher among cisgender males; i instead encourage consideration that trans folk cannot be pathetically linked to abuse as a genuine excuse for their exclusion. is it realistic to consider such motives for trans folk, who go through all the daily struggles of simply existing in a society that may judge them, and then come all the way to the ponds to escape and relax, which is what many pond users do, how realistic is it that they then think about going into a women’s space to commit awful acts? it is implicit discrimination towards trans folk to exclude them, if we want to get all legal with it.

imagine a world where feminists worked together to recognise wrongdoings, and fund cases against real genuine threats (eg cisgender sexual abuse, ongoing femicides,) Imagine the power that could be generated, imagine how many lives could benefit from a collective effort to combat this systemic loophole. imagine a mindset of inclusion and not exclusion as a response. why are we misfiring blame and anger?

** that was a longer footnote than expected, but this***

*** is a monologue, after all.