“The Sapphic Prometheus”

The gods’ mistake was saying forever

and thinking they wouldn’t have time

to fall for each other.

That a titan and an eagle

couldn’t find more in common

than pain and a full belly

if they had forever to figure out.

On a long enough timeline

a liver is as good as a promise,

claws kiss as deeply as a tongue,

and the right kind of pain

is calligraphy.

They were made for each other,

their little hurts and epistles

finding hope in hunger

and the will of the gods.

The titan’s stitched over skin a wax seal

on a red love letter.

Dear eagle,

Tear the mailbox of my torso

open each day.

Find, purpled and wine drunk,

ripe and sweetly bleeding,

this thing again.

This everyday gift.

This love letter

I made just for you.

The eagle eats,

learns the nuances of flavor

tastes the difference

between meat that is taken

and meat that is given

and learns to push past the liver

past the pink waterfalls of flesh

and, soft as a kiss, hushed as a whisper

closes its beak around the titan’s heart.

Flying away the bird will hope

that its feast will grow back.

Watching the bird, the titan

knows that what was eaten was given

and what was given

will have to be held.

“Regimen(t)*”

-6mg estradiol, sublingual, 2 tablets in the morning, 1 tablet in the evening
-0.5mg dutasteride, oral, 1 capsule in the morning
-200mg progesterone, rectal, 1 capsule at bedtime
-10,000mcg biotin supplement, oral, 1 capsule in the morning
-300mg wellbutrin 1 tablet by mouth daily
-4,500mL blood (Gwen Gatewood) daily for memory
-4,500mL blood (Jasmine “Star” Mack) daily for memory
-4,500mL blood (KC Johnson) daily for memory
-4,500mL blood (Tortugita) daily for memory
-4,500mL blood (Olivia Snow) daily for memory
-4,500mL blood (Maria Jose Rivera Rivera) daily for memory
-4,500mL blood (Unique Banks) daily for memory
-4,500mL blood (Ivory Nicole Smith) daily for memory
-4,500mL blood (Imanitwitaho Zachee) daily for memory
-4,500mL blood (Cashay Henderson) daily for memory
-4,500mL blood (Kayleigh Scott) daily for memory
-4,500mL blood (Siyah Woodland) daily for memory
-368 pounds of congressional letterhead paper, daily, for eyesight
-55 grains gunpowder daily for readiness

This is what I must take to keep living.
This is what it takes.
This is what they take from us.
This is what we take back.

*This poem was first written on April 14, 2023 and contains the names of trans and nonbinary people who were murdered that year starting in January. Sadly, the poem continues to write itself longer and longer. The medicine becomes harder to take.