PHOTOSYNTHESIS

It is a beautiful thing, wanting nothing at all from someone you love because you live with mutual understanding beyond the primal need for physical touch, found in fleeting evenings doomed to end with someone closing the door without looking back. It is a beautiful thing, telling them that you love them over the phone while you’re crying your eyes out because you don’t know what to do now; then you’re laughing until there’s a moment you allow yourself to forget. I remember life before my queer friends, how it felt begging for someone I could see myself in just enough to spark a casual conversation built on genuine interest instead of twisting those unwilling into sharing hyperfixations created for those of us who know what it’s like to have to fight for the ones you love.

Sometimes

A poem about unrequited feelings and the occasional resurfacing of memories that come with it.

Nacre

A poem in yearning memory of a past relationship.

Breaking Boundaries in Beauty: The Love Story of Miss Argentina and Miss Puerto Rico

Imagine attending a beauty pageant, not knowing what to expect. Maybe you end up with a tiara and some press, maybe you leave with some great memories, or, just maybe, you get the chance to meet your future wife. This was the case for beauty queens Fabiola Valentín and Mariana Varela, known as Miss Puerto Rico and Miss Argentina respectively.

Whale Cart

Created by Zoë Collins (She/Her) This piece was originally published in our Spring 2022 print issue “Reflections of Radiance.“

patchwork

This poem was originally published in our Spring 2022 print issue “Reflections of Radiance.”

we are
building a new life
painting a new life
writing a new life

i hate it that you know me

magician you don’t listen
all your tricks have worked on me
I’m in a hundred million pieces and we last spoke in my dreams
please lead me back inside the gardens where our lives and love have peaked

piper&jenny

Jenny and I met in the early days of middle school, when everyone was all acne and gangly legs, and got on like a gasoline-soaked house gets on with a match. Frankly, it was a nightmare for our parents. My mom, who I know had been quietly worrying about my ability to make friends, was suddenly unable to enter a shared space in our house without me bombarding her with requests to go to Jenny’s house, stories of something funny that Jenny had said at school today, of Jenny’s new puppy that she got last week.

Tied Too Tight

Illustrated by Steph Liu (She/Her) This comic was originally published in our Winter 2022 Volume 2 print issue “Wanting: A Queer Beauty & Burden.“

There is Not Only Sex in Homosexuality

Illustrated by Cole Lopez (They/Them) I am going to start this piece with a declaration of what it is not: it is not a cry against sexuality and sex. The fight for equality in the queer community includes the fight…