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This Is What Makes Us Worlds

By Joshua Jennifer Espinoza

Like light but
in reverse we billow.

We turn a corner
and make the hills
disappear.

You rearrange
my parts until no
more hurting.

No more skin-sunk
nighttime fear.

No more blameless death.

My hair loses its atoms.
My body glows
in the dark.

Planets are smashed
into oblivion,
stripped of their power
to name things.

Our love fills the air.

Our love eats
the deadly sounds men
make when they see
how much magic
we have away
from them.

Added: Thursday, July 27, 2017  /  Used with permission.
Joshua Jennifer Espinoza

Joshua Jennifer Espinoza is a trans woman poet living in California. Her work has been published in PEN America, The Offing, The Feminist Wire, Lambda Literary, West Branch, and elsewhere. She is the author of two poetry collections—i'm alive / it hurts / i love it (boost house, 2014), and THERE SHOULD BE FLOWERS (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016).

Other poems by this author