You’re turning into a woman, my dad said to me as he held a pair of pink pumps in his hands, staring at me, expressionless. When I say expressionless, you should know that later that same summer, he stared at me, also expressionless, as I stood before him dressed as a literal gay fairy, wand and all, rainbow makeup And all, flowing flower rainbow print chiffon. At which point he said, your jaw i...

She dashed under the foot of the mountain god, barely making it within its protection, the wolves stopping short of making the venture and eyeing her.

“We’ll be safe here. No shifter or soother would risk the life of the pack, nor anger the god above.” The wolves snapped their fangs just outside the giants shadow, the sunlight on their fur making their prickled haunches glow white.

Legends s...

Oh shapeshifter

You taught me

To change forms

Simultaneously

Blue skinned fighter

Somehow you birthed

Someone equally queer

Nightcrawler

An escape artist

Just like you

For our suffering

For a way

Out not forward

Leaping

Leaving

Who are you?

Really

Who are you?

Really

What is authenticity when every seven years the human body’s cells are completely replaced?

And yours…

Every Saturday morning

...

She stared at the hovering orange ball in her hand. It licked the air as she soothed a story of the sun, and a day that had once seemed it would never end. Her dad had still held her hand through the fields, quietly worried that she would run off, yet let her run off anyway, as long as she stayed close. The Sun scared away the shadows, and even the forests edge seemed safer in the day. As long...

Nias feet dragged on the floor, her body led by her shoulders and limp necked head, now painted with her own dark red blood.

Her eyes fluttered as her consciousness went in and out, and the thoughts available to her darted, incohesive small glimpses of the dim tunnel.

Tatters. My clothes.

GrayStone. The tunnel.

Faces. Watching me.

Wooden. Jail bars.

Hands. Gripping tight.

She dug her toes lamel...

I spend most of the day cooking with tv in the background. I want to be ready by 3 knowing my mom will likely be late.

Josh Telling my mother that I’ve tried to give her resources, direction, boundaries with love. She says “we are down here” and “you are up here,” that I am the guiding light.

Being honest: my brother and I experienced childhood emotional abuse. Some physical abuse for him. ...

White women won’t weep

Of accessories lost and lovers of color

Of the shades of nostalgia

Most luminous

A ship set sail

The lighthouse turns

But who the light, who the house, and who the vessel escaping?

Perhaps, questions are queer

And her mind, unplagued

Or rather, rendered writhing

Of Disney paradigms

Care, Karen, care

For the laughs gone missing and the heart disappearing

That you unknowi...

Book 1

- discover white root

- meeting with counsel

- get supplies, say goodbye to family, family dynamics, describe village more, giant tree at center of village, festival proceedings, love interest, main weapon, very democratic

- main character raped by elder, seed implanted

- meet with traveling crew, add in sickly youth character, stag guardian, peri, aster

-------main pressures, youth d...

She was optimistic, bright, easy to love. But she shrank herself, quieted herself more than she wanted. Used that to love more for others, not that she didn't love herself, just that it matched her extroversion to love others more. It came quite naturally. She brightened everyone's day....

Sarra looked at jak, studying her. The different eyes. The long brown body. The scar on her back. The sharp jaw. Not quite like anything Sarra has ever seen. Or really, nothing that had ever walked in these parts. They couldn't walk anywhere together without getting attention. All of a sudden, all eyes followed anywhere she went. I like the attention, if I do say so. All of a sudden, her...