i collect lovers the way i read books

alt title: my relationship with literature is my relationship with love

Rison, Heather. Out of the Darkness comes the Light. 2024, Salmagundi Club, New York.

i collect lovers the way i read books: all over the place 

random page by random page 

sparingly, with keen attention paid to

the details that matter in between 

the lines i read them like tarot like how i pull poems

some fly out at the slightest shuffle 

others shy to make themselves known

i feel them before eye see them before they arrive 

some offer no introduction 

some want me to begin at their ends 

some want a slow Simmer

some want a boiling Burn

either way, they all like it the way i give it: 

hot, 

with ample whole spice, 

just enough sugar, 

& enough salt to turn freshwater into oceans 

in my wake 

author's note 💌

i can’t believe it’s fall already. aka get-up-under-someone-cuz-it’s-getting-real-chilly-season. take-your-vitamins-neowww-if-you-weren’t-already-taking-them-season. you know you’re anemic, stop playing. these are the one’s i take, year round. keeps me from running up under people i have no business being up under when times get like this.

instead, i go snuggle under a big blanket and get cozy with a good book! or a good playlist!

instead, i run me a hot warm shower. cuz apparently hot showers are bad for your skin and i didn’t believe it until i started getting eczema flare-ups during winter these last couple years. second puberty is a trip, but at least i don’t have to deal with acne anymore. and my titties are the most perfectest size i’ve ever seen in my life. but oh my god, my bones, my joints, my neck, shoulders, BACKKK??? i can’t go too long without doing my morning yoga or ELSE? or ELSE!!! if you see me outside and you mistake my figure for Squidward, please yell at me to get on my mat ASAP!

oh yeah, i should probably talk a lil bit more about the poem itself right?
so, this poem is about my polyamorous nature; and how i tend to feel suffocated trying to do the monogamous thing. it’s a prayer for more love + lovers that are open to relating in the same ways as me. it’s a release of compromising my desires for the sake of conformity. shoutout this solar eclipse new moon in Libra. 🌒 the shedding feels good + freeing.

until the next fresh ‘stack🥞
courageously yours,
nu🧚🏿