30.9.25

STORE

reality when left unattended
often spills out in crude ways.
like the blood pouring out of me
out of the body
holding too much.

i am a wounded animal
with a leg held by steel.
Orion flashes
his trophy belt above
pine canopies
sachets of stardust
stolen from
dreaming animals
daring to escape

BELOW

the skin that was born to
warm the hunter
but once pierced by arrow
is useless
liberated.

the celestial hunter
steps on a wounded animal
and i break
free
i bite my leg off
escaped from a trap
freed

25C

into cold moonlight
uncomfortable enough
to remember
that unlike a hunter
whose heart must turn to ice
to hunt the
wild.
an animal burns
with wild desire
to live.

warmth spills
out of flesh
now occupied by
cold as i find a new
body
reborn into
in the stardust dream
kept
at 25 degrees. . .

author's note

store below 25c is a piece/series i'm very proud of! it was written for my favourite course as an excercise of using conceptual metaphors and each poem utilises a different conceptual metaphor while being restrained to a set of characters found on the hrt medication i was using at the time.

store uses a container metaphor to explore the body as a vessel that holds more than just flesh matter, and uses bleeding as a metaphor for closeted transgenderism and how eventually repressing your feelings will spill out in 'unexpected ways'. i also use the brand of the medication as a play on the constellation and god orion to depict an otherwordly entity that horrifically hunts down these animals as an allegory for society.

below uses metaphors of power, such as 'being under' someone to depict hierarchy, as well as going into a grim commentary about how trans people are treated and forced to very sudden and rapid change for their own safety through the 'pierced hide' and 'broken leg' imagery. this is definitely the most underbaked part :p but i still really enjoy it for what it is.

25c uses (say it with me now) temperature metaphors! i use 'burning desire' as a common one, and 'warmth spilling' to depict blood, as well as the classic 'icy heart'. temperature metaphors are pretty surface unfortunately but to tie the piece i really had to!! i swear!! but this part goes into a reversal and uses the cruelty of the 'hunter' character to contrast the burning desire of transgender people and how they will literally rebirth themselves in order to live a life they want to lead. and of course, the 25c is a reference to the storage instructions on the packaging, but also i thought of it as also a little nod to storing a dead body as there is this prevalent theme of 'dying body, burning spirit'.