If other poets could chime in on this, I would appreciate it. How do you write a lengthy poem? I've never completed anything beyond two pages in font size 12, yet I see these incredible, dense works that are near chapter-length. How do you keep it going? Why not settle for something more concise?

Sometimes I feel proud of my work, then other times I read a piece like this and realize I am nothing and nobody. This is trans angst in a far more elegant and violent form than I am even capable of. This isn't a gut punch, it's a disembowelment. Godsdamn. www.palettepoetry.com/2025/06/25/a...

Simple: I don't have enough money. No country is offering us asylum.I don't work in an in-demand tech field, and so job visas are unlikely. I don't have foreign family. I don't have dual citizenship. I don't work for an international company. My only option to leave is money, and I don't have it.

In all the chaos of current reality, I do have some positive personal news: I've had three different works accepted for publication in the last couple of months! Expected publishing dates are in December and January, so I will announce them formally then. It feels good to see my work resonate.

It's unfortunate that the closest big city kink scene to me is so cismale centric. Because in the unfolding apocalypse of transgender life in America, I could use some serious stress relief. It's such a strange feeling that my transition essentially made me a stranger in that scene.

Robin Arble is one of my favorite poets. She has been a huge inspiration to me as I started my journey of sending my poems to publications. Reading this piece, it cuts me to the bone. This is a bone-chilling peak at someone's reality. I hope you are okay, Robin. dialogist.org/poetry/2025-...

"Everything is fraught with terror when one’s life is blessed by saving." Sometimes I write my poems as a vessel for a single line. One I feel is so potent is deserves the decorum of a work crafted to celebrate it. This piece reminds me of that. The line I quoted feels so godsdamn powerful.

So when is a country, any country, going to grant us asylum? The federal government wants us eradicated.

I know I'm talking about this anthology a lot, but it's so good! You are telling me there's a FFXIV Endwalker poem in here?! "the heat death of the universe is inevitable, so why live?" @raynealarcio.bsky.social , I ask myself that question all the time. fifthwheelpress.com/anth7backend...

This anthology just keeps delivering. "was that the final finger on my lips that I would get? Was that the last appeal to permanence I’d get? Is this tiny, tiny, tiny scrap of meat all that I get?" @aporianautics.bsky.social demanding I wake up with this one. fifthwheelpress.com/anth7backend...

"the memories that sting the worst are the ones i don't have." This piece is absolutely incredible. Such an excellent response to the film, a film which broke me down so tremendously. I wept during the film. I wept after the film. I almost wept to this poem. fifthwheelpress.com/anth7backend...

I seriously don't know how to explain to people that it is not in fact a sign of maturity and democracy to peacefully debate whether certain groups of people should be allowed to exist

Just so nobody is mistaken, the NRA is not supporting trans people or their rights. Their entire statement never once mentions us, and uses language they can backtrack with. I do not care that they reposted a tweet about the "tran ban." They lobbied for the politicians who are attacking us now.

Felt this one emerging back into my consciousness today and had to reread it. Gods, it cuts right through my soul. Vivid, almost aggressively so, in its imagery. Unrelenting. Agonizing. "can you blame him for mistaking a stranger's touch for kindness?" www.burningword.com/2025/01/come...

Today is my 2-year HRT anniversary. I can say that nothing in my life has ever been so worth it or rewarding. Every up and down is worth it to look I. The mirror and finally, after 36 years, like who is looking back. To see a reflection that actually should be there. To finally just… be myself. 🖤

Saw that James Dobson died, and I can comfortably say rest in piss bozo, you won't be missed. His "fOcUs On ThE fAmIlY" crap is responsible for traumatizing millions of children, myself included, by convincing parents that any child existing outside his guidelines is bound for an imagined hell.

Every time somebody complains about how queer I present, I suddenly find myself using even more of my body when I speak, leaning even heavier into the "gay accent" when I speak, and continually add even queerer pieces to my wardrobe.

The world burns to ashes around me and somehow I'm still really enjoying my day to day. That's weird, right?

I have a well-established pattern of creativity after a hook up. My very first published poem (under my deadname) was written the day after a hook up at a nightclub. My brain seems to draw a very clear line between romance and creativity, which makes being polyamorous all the more fortuitous.

I used to work for Sprint in Nashville. A customer I was waiting on mentioned they were playing a show tonight. I asked what type of band, and they told me they were Kid Rock's guitarist. Without even thinking, I responded "Oh, I'm sorry man." Kelly Clarkson also said my dogs were cute.

if you're mad at a trans person for saying they won't vote for Gavin Newsom too damn bad! this is our lives! it's not a purity test when it's our lives. of course we're a one issue voter, it's our lives you could just not nominate Newsom! but everyone knows the risk of that now, you have no excuse

Is anybody surprised by this? It was never going to end with sports. It doesn't end with children. It will not end with trans people. Not with bisexuals. Not with cis gay men. Not with queers. Not with racial minorities. Not with women. The right is never satisfied. www.advocate.com/news/florida...

Uh oh, I'm stuck in that famous loop again: I've been in a bad headspace so I haven't worked on my poetry for long enough that I feel guilty for not working on it, thus putting me in a bad headspace that prevents me from working on it. I need to relax and let it return naturally.

Once again, the least enjoyable "I told you so" comes through. LGB drop the T has become LG drop the B. Next will be G drop the L and white G drop the color. Guess who gets dropped after that? Only solidarity can prevent this. Punch up, not down. Fellow queers are not and have never been your enemy.

If ~1% of the population has such a huge genetic advantage in sports that they must be summarily banned from all of them, why are other genetic advantages ignored? There are less than 3k people who are 7 foot tall in the world, yet 29 of them are part of the 450 players in the NBA. That's fair? 1/?

I exist in Schrodinger's existential dread, where on a personal day to day level I feel good about my life, while simultaneously waiting for my own extinction with utter horror. In this case, opening the box is checking the news: are trans people even closer to genocide today, or can I just relax?

Same, friend. Same. Might as well die happy with my personal circumstances, if nothing else.

The gays who thought they were safe and decided to sit out on trans issues or piled on to attack them are going to be in for a rude awakening when Obergefell is overturned in the coming years and same sex marriages are reverted to 2nd class status. They hate gays just as much as they trans people.

Imagine hating me & I'm just sitting in my house eating leftover penne a la vodka & sending memes to my queer friends

I am so proud to live in this state. Even in a country that hates me, I still have the privilege to live in a state that doesn't with a governor who refuses to abandon us, and who continues to speak up for us. This feels like the first deep breath I've taken in hours.

The federal government imposing a stop work order on Trevor project for the national 988 suicide hotline on the same day that the Supreme Court greenlit a ban on care despite the risk of suicide sends a clear message: The United States government officially wants trans youth to kill themselves.

This is literally genocide. How many youth will end themselves over this? All those people excusing Palestine, guess what? It's followed you home, and it's only going to get worse. They didn't stop at sports. They didn't stop at bathrooms. They won't stop at children. They want our extinction.

An excellent read that really articulates so much of what I've been feeling for months, if not longer. Extremely well-written and evocative. Worth your time.

This, 100%. 10/10 no notes.

Give the disease a finger, next it takes a hand, then an arm, until it reaches the head. There is no line to be drawn past "all human beings deserves equal rights always" that will ever be acceptable. You will never be sanitized enough for a group calling for your extinction.

Still can't fully believe that I have a published work that has a "rearrange my guts" line in it. Sex-positivity is a beautiful thing. 🖤

No kings. No gods. No masters. The only authority I submit to is a consensual dominant and even then, there’s a safe word. Fascists can fuck off. Government should exclusively exist to benefit its people and never to oppress their own or any other peoples.

"much like any other land, except bullets for ten dollars a box." How many times do we have to scream it? Graveyards full of children and it never ends. Nobody deserves their life cut short by gun violence, dreams unrealized. A beautiful, haunting work on an unfortunately always relevant topic.

My inner monologue has been that long tense note that plays in all the disaster movie trailers for far too long and I'm getting pretty tired of it.

Art is political. Horror is political.

So incredibly excited to share my recently published work, Therianthropy! I am so proud of this piece. Thank you so much to @rustandmoth.bsky.social for giving this poem a platform. It feels surreal to see my name in a publication I have long admired and enjoyed. 🖤 rustandmoth.com/work/therian...

Damn, this one is good. The phonetics are so pleasing and the imagery is just electric. Something to chew on for me today.

While this has not yet passed the Senate, this is a call for extinction and should be treated as such. How loud do we need to scream for someone to hear us? Then again, people keep finding ways to ignore the substantially louder screams in Gaza, so it's no surprise they are sleeping through this.

Sometimes I read something, and what occurs is beyond mere humbling. I am not checkers to their chess, but Ardipithecus to their Homo Sapiens. I do not know if I have enough synapses to be physically capable of conceiving of a work like this. Sincerely a mind-blowing work. bwr.ua.edu/joy-belonger/

If my grade school DARE officer saw me now, he'd have a heart attack. Addicted to pills (HRT) and constantly sticking myself with needles (electrolysis, bloodwork); I'm everything he told me I should fear. Yet I've never felt better!

I am so incredibly excited to announce my first published work on my real (and legal~) name! Grassroots Literary Magazine selected two of my works for publication, and selected one of them for the Jon Tribble Memorial Award for Poetry. I am beyond honored and humbled to receive such recognition. 🖤

R&M Summer 2025 is live! Featuring work from Eóin Flannery, Ron Stottlemyer, Marisa Campbell, Margaret Kasper Reed, and more, these hymns of the bent world gather to a greatness. Join us online as the issue unfolds! rustandmoth.com/issue/summer...

I don't know who decided this was "Come Out to People you Haven't Talked to in Years" week, but I'm up to three already. Guess it's appropriate since my first published pieces are officially releasing Friday.