^{Self-portrait / Rae Galloway}

After leaving healthcare, I picked up a watercolor palette for the first time on July 17th, 2022 I love it, turns out I'm pretty good at it, and I've painted every single day since then. My Linktree is https://linktr.ee/raegalloway

Innocent Despair

When separate from you my blood will ache.

An unknown part of me will ache

and I’ll try to kill it. Or grab it.

The cell that misses you will throb in me,

and I won’t be able to spot it,

it changes position often,

drags out the game,

hurts my senses.

My eyesight will worsen,

my auditory range will dwindle,

and my nose, a hunting dog’s,

will search for your smell.

Whenever air touches my skin,

a fiend will pierce my body and flee.

My memory will hurt and eat my head,

and my head will vanish but not die.

My ache will regenerate my head.

I’ll grow sad, an invisible feeling,

a ruin, an infinite overflow of dread.

And the angry universe will collect itself

in a corner of my life to ask me:

What have you done with the scale of love?

How did you waste openness on detail?

The answer will hurt me as will silence.

Burning, I’ll go to my death

and demand my right

to a nap.

— Ramallah
Poems from Palestine

Translated by Fady Joudah
 
Read more at:
thebaffler.com/logical-revolts/poems-from-palestine

Beau makes fabric art. You can follow them on Instagram: @‌beauasinhandsome

el dolor

el dolor no me hace más fuerte

me pone enferma

me pone enferma

pain

pain doesn’t make me stronger

it makes me sick

it makes me sick

—Sara Quinn

solitary september

i hear your footsteps in the kitchen
the footsteps of errands
the clangs and the clutter
it brings me peace

i hear my silence 
not alerting you of my consciousness
enjoying my peace
not to avoid you

my feelings about you have changed. 
not entirely unfortunately. 
i hated the things about you i subconsciously hated about myself. 
and you i

focusing on my disappointment of your treatment of me was easier than accepting my flaws. 
i’m sorry. 

i understand you didn’t have the privileges i do. 
the freedom to understand yourself. 
i’m still trying to separate you 
from the monster i once thought you were. 

i understand you better. 
thank you.

—celeste sylvester