Trigger warnings: mild implications of transphobia, suicide and gore, discussions of death, drowning.

A Girl With The Bits Cut Off

And maybe I am just a girl with the bits cut off
And one day I will look in the mirror and find a hole where a person should be

But maybe the next time I walk into the sea
I will not walk out
And the water will close over my flesh
And will not know it either way
And the crabs will love every inch of me
And I will fall like snow over the houses of the channel dead
And under the careless gaze of the wrecks
I will be metamorphosised

Not even human

Just an anger lapping in the waves
Salt sharp on the tongue of the sea-ravaged mariner
Stripping flesh from the bones of my next of mangled kin

The mer-mad drowned
Turned now to sexless sea-foam
Let loose to dance amongst the sovereign waves.

About the author

Dandelion is a trans author from the UK who—being raised by a storyteller—grew up surrounded by hundreds of books, and therefore had little choice but to become that most curious of creatures, a poet. They find comfort in mythology, delight in the fantastical, and have a terrible habit of enjoying long, archaic words. Hopefully (one day) they will write a book, if they can survive being a trans person in the 2020s. Their poetry tends to focus on their experiences with their own identity, through the lens of story and mythology.

Photo by Kyle Johnson on Unsplash.