the fat that encircles your waist
fills out your booty
rounds out your face
the fat that covers you isn’t you
& you are not the fat
your body  
simply holds you inside
you become   
                                            lighter
 
when you decide not to hate
the weight that takes on a new texture
thickens and smooths
cool as metal
taunts slide off your skin
bullshit ends at your breast plate
one hand—a shield.
the other—a mace
another weapon wield by your mouth
a tongue sharper than a spear
You are a warrior.
and all your battles
will make you
Stronger.
Now slay.    


Author Bio:
Jennifer Marie Brissett is the author of ELYSIUM (Aqueduct Press). She recently completed her second novel ELEUSIS and has begun working on the third and last novel in the trilogy, ERINYES. Her work has been a finalist for the story South Million Writers Award, the Locus and Tiptree Awards, and has won the Philip K. Dick Special Citation. Her short stories can be found in FIYAH Magazine, Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, Lightspeed, Motherboard Vice, Uncanny, The Future Fire, the anthology APB: Artists against Police Brutality and other publications. And once in her life, long ago, she owned and operated the Brooklyn indie bookstore called Indigo Café & Books. She currently teaches and writes and lives in NYC. Find her online at www.jennbrissett.com

The shadow that covered us
has changed its branches
the lines of our hands are different
we have turned around
both of us knelt down before emptiness.
We only have memory: a murmur
grows until it becomes a dust cloud of my ribs
in the blood that made two butterfly wings from my nipples
in memory
a tear stopped for years
falls like leaves of the tree that lent us its coat
            slowly in a swaying wave
            crunches, scatters in the wind
                        turns into dust,
the murmur of time that doesn't return.
Where will I bury the ashes
of the shadow that silenced my lips for centuries?
 
____

Horizontes
 
La sombra que nos cubrió
ha cambiado sus ramas
las líneas de nuestras manos son distintas
hemos dado un vuelco
somos dos que se desploman al vació.
Sólo nos queda el recuerdo: murmullo
crece hasta ser tolvanera de mis costillas
en la sangre que hacía de mis pezones dos alas mariposas
y en memoria
una lágrima detenida por años
cae como las hojas del árbol que nos dio su abrigo
            lenta en un vaivén de ola
            cruje, se esparce por el viento
                        se hace polvo,
susurro del tiempo que no retorna.
¿Dónde enterraré las cenizas
de la sombra que enmudeció mis labios por siglos?
 


Author Bio:
Isolda Dosamantes was born in Tlaxcala, Mexico, in 1969. She is the author of several books of poetry, including Paisaje sobre la seda (2008) and Apuntes de viaje (2012), and Después del hambre (2017). In the US, Toshiya Kamei has published English translations of her poems in The Griffin, International Poetry Review, and Minnetonka Review, among others.

what do you say after all the words have been said?

what do you say when the closet door is opened
to reveal all the skeletons?

nothing is a binary 
(i, of all people, know that)
and we don’t have to be changed or unchanged
but couldn’t there be more than

this?

binder yes, pronouns no. tolerance yes, pride no.
labels, labels, labels.
negotiate my existence.

we’re a half-healed whole,
mother and (?)


Author Bio:
Avi Burton is a sophomore in high school. He's definitely trans in some way, but the exact label isn't clear yet. He started writing at age 12 because he thought it would make him famous. It hasn't, but he keeps going anyway. His poetry can also be found in the Rising Phoenix Review's Disarm issue.

I must carry her through this, shove her straight ahead,
whisper love while feeling an undecided hate.
Why did I agree to this journey? Everyone watching,
like media mongers, to see if we will make it.
 
Some worry, wring their hands and pray. Others gawk,
entertained. Others are not here at all but will examine our progress
later with judgment and opinion—and I will hear all of it
when I’m most worn out.
 
A nurse fingers my vagina, describing the scene, telling me
how I should push with my next contraction.
I’ll fucking show you how to push I think smiling warmly
into the ceiling, halogen lights dimmed for evening.
 
Tell me there are rivers, stars and trees I say to my husband
pointing toward the window.
 
He has been here all along, little difference it makes because
mother-with-child is a lone animal clawing, coddling,
carving home out of deserts complete with jawbone cups
and cactus plates,
rattlesnake blankets, rainwater drink, jack rabbit and beetle feast.
 
She and I were always one flesh and that’s why, now suddenly,
as the rifting comes,
and the wire jaws of Hell breech, barbed and surging, our bodies
ripping from one another as she breaks out into another country
and my body retracts than breaks out too--
 
then we inhabit our own bodies again, briefly,
until I grasp her in my arms here on the other side.
Wailing and tears—we are alive. She is alive.
Camera, lights.
 
Carloads of gaping bystanders ready now to cradle her. They reach.
I reach. She is passed around the room.
Exhaustion overcomes my power to resist and retain her.
They have her. My body has me. She wails. I hear.
 
They will return her, I believe, held against my will by sleep.
 
 
​Author Bio:
Kimberly is the author of White Goat Black Sheep (FLP) and her poetry has appeared in several literary journals including The 3288 Review, Temenos, Storm Cellar, Borderlands: The Texas Poetry Review, The West Texas Literary Review, Windhover, Ruminate Magazine, Relief, RiverSedge and The Berkeley Poetry Review. She is an MFA graduate of New Engl and College, a book reviewer for NewPages, an editor for the Nimrod International Journal of Poetry and Prose and an Assistant Professor of First-Year Writing at Michigan State University. Her writing explores trauma, sexuality, violence against women, motherhood, and displacement. To read more of her work visit kimberlyannpriest.com.

We wait till our night train blossom of rose
Manage the sky at dusk for the afternoon
Build canoes designed for journey of fortune
When we got to shore, we knew we did it
 
We trade in lone lane of solidness
Drain it milk from breast, life saw it
Ganged to walk Toronto way
As much as we know, it wouldn’t cost
 
What we did, beyond years of wilderness
More compassionate than the love you Christ
Injected the venom from viper to whisper our
Handy work, we love the oak’s life
 
We still do, will do it not past or present
We were right in front of those shapes that
Perfected origin’s man and brought sack of
long learning, we still do, what we did.


Author Bio:
Daniel Ajayi is a devoted poet from Lagos, Nigeria. He is passionate about his career and realizes the opportunities life gave him. He writes from his studies of human behaviour and holds a degree in Human Resources Management. Some of his works appeared on Spillwords Press, Storried, Ovi Magazine and elsewhere.

There’s a familiar memory I carry around
in my head like an old love song playing 
on the radio, the one that stays with me
all day and calls back to me in my mind,

a strumming of my fingers against the
dashboard, an annoying tune that won’t go 
away hanging over my head like the
floating, summer clouds decades ago...

You’ve let the convertible top down 
on your corvette, my head leans against 
your shoulder, the sun’s tangerine rays 
trace the outer edges of our hair as we stroll 

south along Interstate 10 listening to music
and making plans about a house in the country 
with children and farmland backed up to a lake 
and a bleach stained barn filled with rows of stalls for horses. 

Everything is perfect: you, me, us 
before life gets in our way and time hurls our 
futures in opposite directions, stranding the two 
of us in separate moments with unlikely lovers. 

No one knows the depth of my regret. I’ve kept 
it hidden in between the empty spaces but every now
and again it drags back to me like a somber piece
of music keeping time at a steady, throbbing tempo.


Author Bio:
Shay Cook’s love for writing began at an early age when her mother would punish her by sending her to her room when Shay got in trouble. For Shay these moments were exciting! With pen in hand she crafted funny poems, serious verses, rhymes, and free verse. Her love of poetry continued throughout high school and college as she gained a deeper enjoyment of literature. Shay earned an MFA in Creative Writing from National University and a Bachelor's in English from the University of Phoenix. She is the recipient of the Hillsborough County Lit Wit Poetry Contest, Winner of the Tampa Tribune Letter of the Day, and author of a collected work of poems entitled "Black Silk." Shay’s poetry has appeared in both online and print venues. Her recent published work can be found in The GNU Journal, Mother’s Always Write Magazine, Silver Birch Press, Entropy Magazine and The Narcist Playbook by Nutshell Media Group. Shay is currently working on her second book of poetry, "A Pale Shad e of Color." In her spare time she hosts local creative writing workshops. Shay lives in Tampa, Florida.