i wanted you to pee on me and instead i went inpatient
when i got home the first thing i did was bake
i set it out on the porch for one goddamn second and three-half dead racoons ruined my pumpkin pie
instead of showering with you i contemplated suffocating myself with a little trash bag
hawks are a lesson in patience and categorization is meaningless but.
songbird / songbird / songbird
i told a temporary therapist that i hated my dad instead of telling you how to handle my thighs (harder)
i wanna starve myself til i look like you
straddled atop me in those shorts that confused me for a skirt – reverse cowgirl
i missed seeing the hawk fly off and i never tried that sponge bob birthday cake we got for jesus
sterling-elizabeth arcadia (She/they)
sterling-elizabeth arcadia is a trans poet and diy tattooer in baltimore, where she watches birds and cares for her cats. her work has been published in New Delta Review, Poetry.onl, Stone of Madness Press, and elsewhere.