Sunday, November 5, 2023

{**18+ content**} Binding Freedom Zine (2023)

Binding Freedom
(This is an 18+ work, please DNI if under 18. The original format is a zine, so each stanza is its own page. Check out the photos for the cover art, made by yours truly.)

Ropes of black
and green
slide through
Their fingers
with the 
unimpeded grace
of the Serpent
through Eden.

Slithering
around me,
A familiar
feeling of
electric tension
builds in my
core.

The urge to resist
becomes a distant
memory as I'm
coiled into
hitched ties and 
breaths.

In tightening each 
knot, They loosen
my grip on the 
reins,
Freeing me from
the burden of
control and
conformity.

I've never felt
closer to
salvation than
when bount at the
mercy of Their
confident,
calloused hands.

What I wouldn't
give to experience
this moment for eternity.

-   -   -


If you want a physical copy of any of my zines, they're available for purchase! Email me at radiostationpet@gmail.com with the subject line "Zine Inquiry" and I'll be happy to send you as many as you'd like. 

{**18+ content**} Kadan Zine (2023)

Kadan
(This is an 18+ work, please DNI if under 18. This work is a love letter to Dragon Age: Inquisition's NPC, The Iron Bull. The original format is a zine, so each stanza is its own page. Check out the photos for the cover art, made by yours truly.)

How sweet of them 
to let me taste 
perfection at the 
convergence of 
their powerful 
thighs.

To allow me the 
honor of hearing 
them sing my 
praises with a 
vice grip on my 
horns.

The trust they 
have in me to 
finally let go.
Unburdened,
Unashamed.

What an honor it
is to be a part of
something so
primal,

So human.

They're the reason 
I wonder if I'm 
even a monster at
all.


-  -  -  

If you want a physical copy of any of my zines, they're available for purchase! Email me at radiostationpet@gmail.com with the subject line "Zine Inquiry" and I'll be happy to send you as many as you'd like. 

{**18+ content**} Attraction Zine (2023)

Attraction
(This is an 18+ work, please DNI if under 18. The original format is a zine, so each stanza is its own page. Check out the photos for the cover art, made by yours truly.)
They talk about
chisled jawlines
and shapely
thighs the way
retired dad's talk
about horsepower
and torque.

While I can
appreciate a hot
rod when one
presents itself,
I'm not looking
for a pretty
paint job.

Do their fingers
curve around their
glass or cigarette
the same way
they'd curl over
my body?

Is the diameter of
their grip similar
to that of my
tightest necklace?

Would I like to 
look up at them
from my knees,
soaking up praises
reserved for me 
and God, if she's
listening?

Does their smile
look like it would
tear into me just
as quickly as it
would moan my 
name?

-   -   -

If you want a physical copy of any of my zines, they're available for purchase! Email me at radiostationpet@gmail.com with the subject line "Zine Inquiry" and I'll be happy to send you as many as you'd like. 

Recipe For Your First Daughter (2023)

Recipe for Your First Daughter
(Best served in quiet contemplation of who she could have been, with a mix of Pride and Guilt)

Start with a firstborn daughter, layer in expectations of being the smart one, the successful one, with good grades and better manners, the only remark on her report card being “she’s brilliant, but she talks too much”

Chop off the rebellious roots, the untamed dreams, but keep the safe, stable life choices in case anyone ever needs to lean on her

Boil away any sense of individual; her life will always be in response to someone else’s needs before her own

Incorporate siblings into children she didn’t have or ask to be responsible for, but do it anyway because someone has to and why not her

Simmer over years of pretending everything is fine until it boils over in the middle of an argument, in the Kwik Trip parking lot, or a staff meeting, never where it needs to and always at the worst time

Garnish with an anxiety disorder disguised as “compassion” and “empathy”

Serve cold-hearted and years too late, on Gramma’s worn-out potholders, with her same worn-out smile.

-   -   -

Published originally in Portage Lit Mag's 2023 issue. The original version can be found here: https://portagemagazine.org/recipe-for-your-first-daughter/

Release Your Inner Femmonster (2023)

RELEASE YOUR INNER FEMMONSTER
I want to be feminine in the way that
The Sphinx is feminine
Or Baphomet, or Dionysus.
Dangerously Feminine.
Threateningly Feminine.
The kind of feminine that breaks norms
And ignores outdated opinions of what a
Body should look like or shroud themselves in.

I want to the the type of feminine that people
Tell tales about to scare little kids away from
Hot Topic and Tumblr.
"Beware the ones with the wild-colored hair
They come at night, trapping you in their 
Fishnets and stabbing you with eyeliner
Sharper than any sword."

I want to be the type of feminine that grinds all those
"Cover up" comments into the powder of their foundation.

I want to be feminine like fish scales and horse tails
Like chalcedony and lemon cakes
Like chopping wood in Demonias.

I want to be so terrifyingly feminine that no one
Ever touches me without permission again.
That my very visage is a warning,
like a poison dart frog or
Mountain Dew.

Feminine like the local cryptid,
Indescribably alluring,
A whisper in the trees calling you closer
A shiny coin at the bottom of a mountain stream.
Feminine like broken stained glass at the foot of an altar.
Feminine like a proclamation of war.

I want femininity to be a choice
Not a default setting to be assigned.
A standard of being that demands respect.
That takes up space.
That refuses to kneecap its sentences just to
Make room for others’ egos.

Whoever decided liking sparkles and pink and
expressing emotions meant I can’t
Fend for myself,
I just want to talk.
Never mind the fishnets and eyeliner,
I just want to show you
What I mean when I say
Femme fatale.

-   -   -

Published originally in Portage Lit Mag's 2023 issue. The original version can be found here: https://portagemagazine.org/release-your-inner-femmonster/

Great Expectations (2023)

Great Expectations
You’re like bubblegum stuck in my hair
I think I’ve got every trace of
You removed but there are
Days where I find more
Stuck deep in the roots or
Little bits at the edges.


I finally cut you out but now
I’m left with a jagged pixie
Cut that doesn’t suit me at all.

I shave my head, desperate to
Remove every piece of you.
Now I look in the mirror and
I’m reminded of you regardless.
How luscious I was before you
How barren I feel after.

You didn’t break my heart,
I did it for you.

You’re moving on.
I’m not your concern.
I never was.

You can continue searching that
Bottomless ocean you call a heart
For the meaning of existence without
Me to weigh you down, keep you
Grounded for fear you’ll forget to
Breathe.

You can fly as close to the sun as you want
Without me warning you of
Dripping wax.
You can burn out to your
Heart’s content.
I only ever stifled you, anyway.

Even when it’s easier to forget I exist,
I hope you remember Hay Creek.

I hope you remember the makeshift canopy fort
Silk sheets and woven wool,
White wine and gummi worm charcuterie,
Sandalwood and lavender.

I hope you remember the squishy,
Broken bits we took out of hiding and
Handled like museum quality relics
Only to shove them back in a dusty box
Left for the next moment of
Performative vulnerability.

I hope you remember the
Bargain jeans and sticker bins
Painted pottery and
Deli sandwiches in a snowy cemetery.

I hope you remember me trying to love you
Even when if felt impossible without
Divine intervention
Or an alternate universe.

I hope you find a love that fits you
Like glass shards in a mosaic
Completing the picture I wish I was a part of.

-   -   -

Published originally in Portage Lit Mag's 2023 issue. The original publication can be found here: https://portagemagazine.org/great-expectations/

Frogs (2023)

Frogs
When I was little
Before my sister was born
Before I knew much of anything about pain and suffering
My grandfather convinced me that hail was
Little white frogs
Jumping around in the grass
Never mind where they fell from,
Look how they hop when they hit the ground!
His name was Kermit,
I trusted he knew all things about frogs
The big green ones that lived in the koi pond
And scattered when I tried to catch them in my net
Or little white ones that fell from the sky
And disappeared in the afternoon sun.

I'm much older now
I know much more about pain and suffering
I've read his memoir
Learned about the miracles,
The fishhook in the eye,
The shrapnel missing his exposed body
Killing his friends through an eye slit in the bunker wall.
No one in his family lived to be 46,
but this little, stubborn old man
Frail in body but strong in wit,
Nearly doubled that age,
Refusing to be a victim of fate time and again.

I heard it all again at that church in Poysippi
Listening to the pastor read the sermon
The little old man wrote
Because of course he planned his own funeral
Writing drafts up until he couldn't hold the pen
I can't help but wonder if the perfectionism and
procrastination combination
Is genetic
Like heart disease
Or a dry sense of humor.

I find myself looking out the window
With my little sister
Telling her about the little white frogs
Look how they hop when they hit the ground!
I can't help but see that little old man
Smiling back through my reflection on the glass
And I wonder if he felt these moments
Were worth all that pain and suffering.

-   -   -   
Published originally in Portage Lit Mag's 2022 issue. The original can be found here: https://portagemagazine.org/frogs/

Intention (2024)

I've carved out the raw parts of myself To mull with cloves, orange, and honey.  A simmer pot full of good intentions Stirred with the t...