Issue 46: Summer 2019

Aposematism

I have neither poison nor venom

 

I have neither poison nor venom

And fight or flight becomes false dichotomy

When your choice is always the same.

I’ll wrap myself in Batesian mimicry —

See these spikes, see these stitches,

See these trappings of a bitch

With whom you do not fuck?

I want to fake it till I make it.

I want to make affectation true.

I want to wear my outside in.

About the author

Helen Robertson is a genderqueer trans woman moving through the lifelong process of accepting how lucky they’ve been, using poetry to excise their ire and sorrow—hopefully turning it into something worthwhile. They have been published in BywordsCV2, and have work forthcoming in The New Quarterly. They are the secretary for Tree Reading Series.