Volume Five | The Poetry Edition

the poetry edition / august twenty-twenty-six

The Shape of Surviving

By Megan Gragg – They told me survival is quiet / They told me strength is stoic / They told me healing looks like silence / But I have heard the way grief sings / when nobody tells it to hush...

POETRY

Asian burlesque performer Hana Li prepares to remove a black glove while dressed as a genderbent Naked Snake from Metal Gear Solid 3 with a green headband, a black eyepatch, a rhinestoned black bra, and camouflage pants.

For a Burlesque-Dancing Biologist, 'Ecdysiast' Is Not a Euphemism

By Jennifer Elise Wang – There is a small opening on her back / A flap of the old skin / She tugs until the largest piece comes off / Then she bends to remove the skin on her legs...

POETRY

Ruminations on Summertime

By Sam Moe – I almost break my neck with hunger / Looking for his bright blue, electric / Light, that’s not a metaphor but if you want / One, you can come and get it...

POETRY

The image is of a woman dressed like a moth. She has moth antenna on her head and has a cape that looks like large moth wings wrapped around her. The image takes place on a burlesque performance stage with a red curtain as the backdrop.

Coming Home

By Lucipurr Morningstar – (content warning: sexual violence) I learned from a young age that my body was not my own / the filthy hands of my father / the teenage boys who told me to 'just let it happen'...

POETRY

Two hands cradle a brightly glowing smartphone in the dark, the screen's warm light contrasting against a purple background.

Text to My Best Friend (?)

By Merack – youre just really cute / have I told you that???? / I sholud tell you more often / and when im sobber...

POETRY

The Condemned Body

By Rêveur Tounsi – I did not steal. I did not kill / I committed but one crime / to love you / to kiss you...

POETRY

Texas Rain

By Kai Jeanne – It is in the moment between her walking away / and me watching her gait / that I realized two things...

POETRY

Acrylic on flat canvas painting of the art piece 2spiritFlag. On the left there is a split-face portrait of a melanated, Indigenous person whose hair flows past the edges of the right side of the painting. The hair strands depict the colors of the alternative two-spirit flag created by Miigwan on Tumblr. From top to bottom, the flag's color stripes are black, white, yellow, red, blue, and green. A stick-figure style moon and sun are in the center of the flag. Behind the person, the top sixth of the painting shows a clear blue sky with white clouds.

When I Say Two-Spirit...

By Sueitko Zamorano Chavez – When I say two-spirit / I mean every Indigibaby is born with the energies of the sun and moon / Creating stability of all things...

POETRY

A woman with long dark wavy hair sits on a rock with her back to the camera, wearing a navy dress, looking out over a park garden with wildflowers in the foreground.

The World Burns and So Do We

By Lauren P. – in the hallways we’d / exchange sly smiles / newly aware of / all we possessed / beneath our clothing...

POETRY

The performer's name was Josephine-Joseph, made famous by the 1932 film 'Freaks'. It is from a brochure distributed in the 1920s at their sideshow performances.

Sideshow Skin

By Chloe Crawford La Vada – each night, you crowd in with the others / amid shadows and sawdust, to see me / sell the strangeness / of my sideshow / skin...

POETRY

A black and white photograph of a person in a dark blazer and open white shirt, hand raised to cover their face, against a plain white background.

you didn’t hurt me, nothing can hurt me

By Daniel Sheen – foxes watch as we drive by. tongues out, nodding their heads in unison. they remind me of childhood—that feral stink of tar and piss and blood...

PROSE POETRY

Foul Mouth

By Julie Andrieux – You’re so promiscuous / You must be from France / You stick out / Like a pig in a dress at a beauty pageant...

POETRY

Black and white photo of Bryanna Licciardi smiling, sitting outside on steps

Planted

By Bryanna Licciardi – Do you think whoever was here / in this body / before me / hasn’t left all the way?

POETRY

An Asian man with dark hair and glasses crouching in front of an outdoor stone structure. He is holding upright a large stick, taller than he is.

Evolution of a Trans Man

By Artemis Lew – my voice today won’t be my voice tomorrow / drifting down, down, down, featherlike / don’t blink, you’ll miss the drop...

POETRY

excerpts from 'Diary of a Burlesque Dancer'

By Indigo Sage – I feel held by a history; richly woven, with the stories of audacious women...

POETRY

Invisible Queerness

By 9TeenWolves – When you pass / your queerness becomes invisible / People only see the color of my skin / Black first / Man next / Nothing else...

POETRY

A trans woman in pink camo fatigues, a black leather collar, and Demonia boots stands in front of a brick wall, gazing left with a slight smile and black lipstick.

Love from the Margins

By Summer Santos Webber – A black belt bulldyke / clad in digital camo fatigues / blows smoke into my smiling face...

POETRY

Two people in silhouette hold hands on a hilltop under a starry night sky, one shining a beam of light upward into the Milky Way.

On Being the Queer Cousin

By Vesper - It’s illegal to carry self-defence tools along Edinburgh streets, but American queer cousins will tell you how many knives to carry...

POETRY

A watercolour illustration of two women leaning close to kiss at a wooden table, holding hands, with drinks beside them. One wears a rainbow singlet and a cap reading "POET." A trans flag and rainbow flag fly in the background amid confetti.

We Have Always Been Here

By Sam Harty – We have waited too long / buried too many / loved too hard / to beg for scraps of rights / we already bled for...

POETRY

A black and white performance photograph of a person kneeling on a dark stage under spotlights, arms crossed tightly over their chest, hair blurred from movement.

Nightdream Soliloquies

By J – I bought a new soap / I’ve been sleeping for 22 hours a day / I asked for help / I don’t sleep with a knife anymore / I got out of bed / I brushed my teeth / I missed you so badly my chest collapsed

POETRY

A black and white portrait of author, Jonathan Fletcher

Touch, Not Sex

By Jonathan Fletcher – A finger can do so many things / Stroke the back of an anxious neck / type out a confession on an aging keyboard / finger the trigger of a neglected gun...

POETRY

divine right

By Jude Alaska – (content warning: references the 2016 Pulse massacre) my kids’ might be the ones / with two queer parents / but isn’t it queer how that / bothers you more / than blood dripping on bathroom floors...

POETRY

Image of Mx. Mommy Issues, a draglesque performer, posing on a black staircase with red walls as the background. Mx. Mommy Issues poses with their leg on the stair rail and wears black boots, red and green fishnets, black bottoms, a black corset, black bra, and black gloves, a necklace made from colorful carabiners.

in-between

By Madi Weber – when i dance on stage / i don’t mind my ass to shake or my silhouette to curve / but can I put on a mustache? / and button my collared shirt with that same body?

POETRY

Artwork of acrylic markers. The outline of a trans person that has black hair with trans colour stripes in the hair. You can also see their red lips. A lot of colourful flowers show at the front. Soft pastel stripes outline the person.

Riots Kill Kings Not Queens

By Jaxx Davis – I have become / books with uncracked spines / and late night / whispered conversations / under two layers of blankets / that keep the rest of the world out...

POETRY

A burlesque performer in pasties and heels leans toward a large mirror, her tattooed back to the camera, her reflection gazing back at her in a warmly lit room.

The Mirror

By Desiree McCullough – My swelling sensuality is a privilege to witness and rare to partake / I throb for this delicious control and autonomy...

POETRY

A person with short blue hair and dark lipstick sits sideways on a folding chair, wearing a teal strapless dress and black heeled sandals, with a colourful tattoo visible on their upper arm and a silk scarf at their neck.

Figures

By Harlequin Crow – It’s hard to pack / every aspect / of self / into a suitcase / with only enough space / for essentials / a concept too vast / for checked baggage...

POETRY

The back of a pink school bus photographed from below against a blue sky with clouds, showing the "School Bus — Emergency Door" sign in bold black text.

Knowledge Is Power

By Kelcy Conroy – That’s three things going against me / I thought as I saw and learned / about the hate the government / was causing. I was gay / I was autistic, and / I was a woman...

POETRY