My joy, my tears, are sincere. Is this girl real? I really like being a girl. I don't miss the male me. I don't miss the him and he. Away from him, I'm finally free.

Since birth, Lukcia Patricia Sullivan lived a false existence first as a boy, and then as a man. What no one knew is that she desperately wanted to be a girl. But as she grew, she learned that this desire had to be hidden and never discussed. Still, she knew she was a girl in heart and mind, and approached life with the emotional sensitivities of a female-until she was finally able to transition at age sixty-seven.

In a soul-searching collection of poems originally penned to maintain her sanity, courage, and to survive the challenge of male-to-female transition in her hometown of twenty-three years, Sullivan lyrically explores a lifetime struggling with an unfulfilled want, lost and false loves, and the unwavering hope that she would somehow find her way to her true self. While capturing the pain of unresolved gender dysphoria, Sullivan's poems also provide uplifting encouragement to others in transition that happiness is on the other side of tears.

Talking to Myself is a volume of poetry that reflects on a transgender woman's courageous path to personal fulfillment and her true self.