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Cowardly Lion

A literary mouth-off dressed in Oz imagery: this poem moves through yellow roads, false kingdoms, and poppy fields to ask what courage means when silence has already chosen its side.

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First: The Belt

A thoughtful poem about trans becoming, where Orion serves as both symbol and shorthand for masculinity, recognition, and self-authorship.

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Seen / Unseen

A raw, unflinching trauma narrative that captures the isolation of bipolar depression, exposing the distance between offered support and true presence, and the brutal persistence required to stay alive.

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F31.81, In Partial Remission

A fierce, intimate essay that explores bipolar disorder through the lens of caregiving, tracing the tension between high-functioning professionalism and private collapse.

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“The Palms STill Stand. Crisp Silhouettes against a Hazy Sky, tall as guilt and just as thin. They line the driveway in symmetrical grief, as if trying to offer shade to something that can’t be cooled. Everything here is sun-bleached and wind-chapped, held together by spider webs and memory. The breeze tastes like eucalyptus and the air smells like dust that used to be skin.”

Noncompliant: A Sunglassed Elegy From Camarillo