You make me feel edible in a good way.
When you were twelve, did you trust beta fish?
Did you ask the stream if she had a name
or was it always yours? I used to want to
get married in a tree and have a veil that reached
the dirt. I have always been prone to vein
and root. Brushing soil from my knees.

I’m begging you to rebury me and come back
before it rains again. A toad and a sweet potato
are two sides of the same strange heart.
When I traded my amphibial I thought I’d never
use the cellar again. When you listen to music
do you always last all the way through a song?
I don’t. I skip and skip. I’ll be the biggest spoon
you’ve ever seen. When I lay next to you
I gossip the way I used to in the freshly tilled field.
Tell me then how you like your clouds
and I’ll bring them just like that.

---

Robin Gow (He/they)
Robin Gow is a trans and queer poet and Young Adult author. They are the author of Our Lady of Perpetual Degeneracy (Tolsun Books, 2020) and the chapbook Honeysuckle. Their first essay collection, Blue Blood, is forthcoming (Nasiona Publishing House, 2021) and their first Young Adult novel, A Million Quiet Revolutions, is forthcoming (FSG Books for Young Readers, 2022).