xxxvii

nothing is built to breathe in
but the expectation is inescapable
preordained in disability
a suicide by chronic dysfunction
just another autistic tranny
baptised in stormwater

catalogue the bruising in gradients
in some ways i’m clean
in others i’m still ashamed
escapism is alleviation
a body not meant for consumption
force-fed through silicone veins

do you feel closer to god
when you jerk off to me?
do all your friends know
You experiment with e?
if you stare at the mirror enough
your reflection will laugh back

too many people i wish i didn’t know
in denial of their own vacant flesh
bystanders applauding processions
piling on top of one another
through shattered carbon and glass
sympathy as passivity

please know i try in spite of it
i don’t want to be like any of her
i live to defy obligation
loving everyone i fuck
fucking everyone i love
at some point we will breathe again

existence in poetry //

transgender,
hopeless sapphic
gothic romantic //

revelations in love,
despair, hope
failure, beauty
death, personhood
resistance, healing //

non-indigenous woman
dwelling in Naarm
on lands sovereign
to the Wurundjeri people
this always was
always will be
Aboriginal land
paytherent.net.au //