Poetry

By Mian Anais I learned young  that not every door stays open,  that sometimes rooms forget how to hold you. I went looking for home  in borrowed bedrooms,  and the corners of houses that weren’t mine.  I tried to find it in the small things the sound of Saturday morning cartoons,  the way a little sugar in your coffee  could soften even the hardest mornings.  These little pockets of warmth  I mistook for home.  But every time I thought I reached it, it slipped  ran from me, 

By Mian Anais Some nights I fold you into prayers   I look at the full moon  and wonder if you see it too  If it watches over you  The way I tried to  I see you walking roads  I prayed you’d never find  And it kills me  To see you fetching for him  To know you’ve become a punching bag  To see your light bruised by hands Never meant to know your body  What is it like?  To be shaped by sorrow and survival? When memory is your only map  and the present slips through your fingers

By Mian Anais It is winter in Arizona  No thanks to the sun  I am sweating through my favorite hat  The one Mama  thinks I wear  Because I wanna be a boy  It is winter in Arizona  And mama told grandma  I kissed a girl  Said I cut my hair  Said im a boy now  Said  I call myself being gay  Gay  Sat at the back of her throat  Like that cough medicine  You need a ginger ale to wash down This heat must've made me lose my mind  Said she didn’t raise me to be that way  Put Mian on

By Mian Anais As  a child I remember tearing flesh from orange slices, juice dripping down my chin, sticky sweetness clinging to my fingertips sweet Arizona summers, the orange-peel smile stretched wide across my teeth. 2020 was the year I said goodbye, the year I spoke to GOD, the year I prayed for a response I knew would never come: a hand squeeze, a slight grin, a miracle too miraculous to exist. that was the year some fought to keep shelves full of toilet paper and peanut

By Mian Anais To be loved by you Is to return home  Is to learn God again  To remember  That the only reason I have lived Long enough to know your name Is thanks to her All thanks to your God  To be loved by you  Is to feel God listening  Is to know that  Even on my days of doubt  Forgiveness was an answered prayer To be loved by you  Is to know a sanctuary Is to say I am coming home  With no bitter taste  To spit from my mouth  Is to never fear  Coming Home again  Because I

By Mian Anais A recipe for hunger pains  First gather the last two ingredients in your pantry Next scoop the half empty jar of peanut butter  and old can of cake frosting into a bowl and stir Sprinkle in an extra dash of love, spoon the mixture into and ice cube tray  And freeze until your stomach feels like it's eating itself And you can't stand to make your siblings wait any longer When you are feeling sweet and satisfied Forgive your mama Convince yourself she wont let it

By Mian Anais You started as a wish upon a star  As that out of reach feeling  That I would never lay my heart on  But since the moment that I met you  You’ve been every 11:11 wish come true  You are a dream I pinched myself  And you are still here  And we are holding this moment  In the palms of our hands  Like paper crane wings  Floating  Through clear skies  On open air  You’ve got me so high  And I am fine defying gravity with you  You know, I once found a piece of you  I

By Mian Anais Spanish was my first language  The first lullaby I hummed  My words were sweet  And child sized  Soft as a whisper  Papi was the one who taught me,  Showed me how words could hold me  when the world felt too big  He called me Princesa  Like he saw something holy  in my little hands  When he couldn’t give me the world  He gave me a crown instead  Papi wasn’t blood,  but he was mine. The man who stitched himself into my story,  left me Anais as a middle name  Like

By Billy Rock Mitchell On the edge of the edge the confused ape person stared at that mazey hedge They could see other apes wondering around They were all lost But some were lost lost And some were lost and found As they all were confused stumbling around This hedge maze was big Mind shatteringly massive The ape person could see it all Every corner, every curve Every nook, every cranny The hedge and its lost monkey citizens stretched past the horizon In every biome and every

By Billy Rock Mitchell A child and their guardian were walking along that grand old city's streets and parks Having an informative chat about all the world's animals; from the lowly ant to mighty sharks But then that wee babe's eyes did spy a man sitting in the shade and eating bark from a tree The man chewed up the bark, smiled bright as he gazed at every sight and patted his full belly "Who is that?" said the child The guardian looked down at that bright eyed fledgling and

By Billy Rock Mitchell It was one windy night in that ramshackle tavern by that Bendenbattle Bay That a traveller told me of a magic man with many songs and words to say People would  love and rejoice in him but cower and fear him greatly too With a strum of his thumb and a wobble of his tongue anyone could be made or undone By that wizardy wiley fool Billy the Bard was this sparkly specimens name Whose pen could cast any sword down in shame  Who made jumping jesters giggle a

By Billy Rock Mitchell What happened to the planet earth? Was it really always this hard? The memories I find hard to unearth Like a corrupted memory card So many peaks and troughs Swings and roundabouts too With lurid shrieks and coughs What oh what is there to do? The wonders of this so called modern age full of toil, woe and stress The feeling so many sods enjoy standing over their bed ready to undress Making the young, dumb and full of cum feel like bums As they do endles

By Billy Rock Mitchell I loved you and you were beautiful You were like a finely crafted paper rose Real but unreal at the same time To hold you and to be in your unbelievable presence was a joy But with the great love there came the great anxiety of a clumsy boy For paper is torn easily without much effort As clumsy boys do without thought I upset you The paper rose was torn I tried all I could to mend what I had done But the sticky tape and glue was not enough to fix my mis

By Billy Rock Mitchell Well past the end of night Where faint echoes take flight Where silly boys acting as men speak from the heart As buried truths and feelings do from the mouth depart Why is it we could not be so frank Before we got so fucked and drank? Why do we need to keep in what so wants to get out How do we stay so silent when we need to shout It's seems so sad that even in these modern times People refuse to talk about the past and all its crimes The silly boys car

By Billy Rock Mitchell There he sat That old ragged man Unassuming and underwhelming With a glass once half full now half empty of wine Inside his blood shot eyes memories of yester time For inside his brain is singing of the adventures long since gone And in the theatre of his mind he told his imaginary audience of his escapades And his list was long He had fought with his band of brothers on a South American bay Dined with a regal prince at midnight in the tower of Mandalay

By Billy Rock Mitchell Hail the king  Glory to this quaint land of polite folk Hail the monarch Glory to this empire stronger than ever Pledge allegiance to the head of state Pledge allegiance to your true culture Pledge yourself to this wonderful hate Pledge your future to this lurid vulture This is all normal business as usual Tea, biscuits and cake galore State violence and freakish gore The firm is secure  The family is strong A stable Hanoverian yolk Nothing to fear  No

By Billy Rock Mitchell Part 1: The Baron A ragged trousered noble A prince in taste and a pauper in pocket That was the fate of the intensely afflicted Baron Bozo Bambi The sickly and intoxicating pursuit of life's immediate pleasure Hung over dear Bozo's head like an intense and aggressive fog  Was it a natural state or was it an unholy affliction  He knew not But either way he wore his nature like a crown Proving the legitimacy of his self appointed title A child of the ses

By Paula Llorens Ortega as a child, she would stitch the waves together.  thread by thread, like a sail,   looping it twice,  so it would have someone to retreat with.  she chased them with springy leaps, flat feet charred from the burning sand. she bit off the blisters, numbing the redness with spume.  damp hem of a dress dragged behind her; a mother’s dress cut off at the ends and a grease stain on the ruffled sleeve. she wore patches of

By Roshan Tara At sixteen, I was homeless, shunned by parents who called me disgrace. Thugs lured me with cash, then drugged my tea for an old man's lust. I fought, sinking into darkness. He came-older, kind-his voice pulling me free, breaking chains. He gave shelter, bread by my cot, eyes warm at dawn. I loved him, heart a hidden blaze. His wife, his child, sealed my truth. Nightly, my diary caught my words by lantern's glow. It listened, holding my secret-love, fierce, unsp

By Roshan Tara I remember the first time I saw her the world was loud around me, but she stepped in and silence bent bent around her. her eyes a shade of light brown, so rare it almost fooled me into calling them golden. our eyes met, and somewhere inside me something quietly shattered. I thought it would pass like all passing wonders do but days folded into weeks, and she lingered in the spaces between my thoughts, in the ache I tried to forget. her hair caught the sun like