--Wonder-- I wonder what things would be like Had we stayed in touch. Maybe I wouldn't feel so lost So alone. Day after day goes by And I'm waiting for a message That will never come. What if we had stayed together? Maybe we would be talking now Discussing our favorite show Like nothing ever happened. But day after day goes by And that message still hasn't come. And I know it never will. Would you be here to comfort me? Would you cheer me up when I'm down? Would I return the favors? And yet, each new night falls And the message Still Isn't There. --Suffocation-- (tw: death, transphobia, dysphoria, drowning/inability to breathe) Do you know the feeling Of suffocating in your own skin? When you look in a mirror, Do you see yourself staring back, Or someone else that you don’t know? Are you drowning In a sea of pronouns and deadnames? We’re trying to stay afloat, Trying to balance biology with identity, Just trying to exist. But how do we breathe When we keep getting pushed underwater? How do we thrive When we’re already dying? --Flames Rising-- As a child, I was scared. Anxious, nervous, always drowning in a deep dark sea. I would see flames in the darkness when there were none. A fiery fear driven by none other than my own creativity. The flames would rise around me, The flames only I could see. I could call for help, But would anyone believe me? --Loud 2.0-- (for context, I have a poem called Loud but it's not on here) Humans are a noisy species. Not just with their voices, but with their actions, too. Just when you thought you’ve escaped, The noise catches up to you. It always does. There really isn’t a point to the sound, It just is. This world isn’t designed for that much noise, But we’ve forced it to comply. It’s always loud. There’s no escape. They tell you to just live with the sounds Constantly flooding your head But what if I can’t? We’ve shaped this world in a way Where I cannot thrive. And it’s not just me, there’s others, too, But no one listens to us. Because we’re quiet, And they’re loud. --Wild Heart-- When they take my paws, I use feet to walk instead. When they take my fur, I use clothes to keep me warm. When they take my tail, I use my ears to keep myself upright. When they take my whiskers, I use my other senses to navigate the world. When they take my forest, I make the city my home. When they take my wild heart, however, My veins run cold, My blood goes stale, And there’s no coming back. --Little Me-- My little self would look at me now And they wouldn’t recognize me. The princess they dreamed of being Has turned into a prince of darkness. The monster hunter they knew was inside them Is now fighting the demons of human society. The plentiful, loyal friends they once had Have turned around and backstabbed them. They’d look me in the eyes and say, “No. You’re not me. This isn’t me.” But it is. I don’t know how I got here, From that tiny smiling bundle of energy, But this is me now. And that little monster-hunting princess Would hate what’s become of me.