"Fairy Dance" by Matthew Fertel
Theo LeGro | Sex After the Mastectomy
Look at me now, all sewn up, high
at the bar after radiation. I know
there’s only loving like tomorrow
will let you but I really used to be
something. I’ve spent my whole life
wishing I could make beauty
matter less but it’s all
we want,
to let beauty in and make our beds
dirty. I should bless this boiling body,
shameless, undivine, winking,
thinking it still deserves every pleasure,
but I just want to become less
than a secret. To leave before dawn,
abandon my underwear because the sight
of you seeing me is too much to bear.
Meanwhile the fire in
my flesh sings,
take me, anywhere, I’ll live or I won’t.
at the bar after radiation. I know
there’s only loving like tomorrow
will let you but I really used to be
something. I’ve spent my whole life
wishing I could make beauty
matter less but it’s all
we want,
to let beauty in and make our beds
dirty. I should bless this boiling body,
shameless, undivine, winking,
thinking it still deserves every pleasure,
but I just want to become less
than a secret. To leave before dawn,
abandon my underwear because the sight
of you seeing me is too much to bear.
Meanwhile the fire in
my flesh sings,
take me, anywhere, I’ll live or I won’t.
Theo LeGro is a queer Vietnamese-American poet who has received a Pushcart Prize nomination and fellowships from Kundiman. Their work appears or will appear in diode, Frontier, Raleigh Review, SARKA, Vagabond City Lit, and others. They live in Brooklyn with a cat named Vinny.
Matthew Fertel is a Sacramento-based photographer who has worked in the Photography department at Sierra College since 2004. Before that, he was a fine art auction house catalog photographer in San Francisco for over 10 years.
Matthew's current work focuses on capturing the minutiae he encounters in his daily life. He seeks to expose the hidden beauty in the everyday objects that make up the landscape of our existence. Going to the same locations over days, months and years allows him to capture images under different lighting and weather conditions, and to see objects change over long or short periods of time. There is art hidden everywhere if you learn to see it.
Learn more at his website and on Instagram.
Matthew's current work focuses on capturing the minutiae he encounters in his daily life. He seeks to expose the hidden beauty in the everyday objects that make up the landscape of our existence. Going to the same locations over days, months and years allows him to capture images under different lighting and weather conditions, and to see objects change over long or short periods of time. There is art hidden everywhere if you learn to see it.
Learn more at his website and on Instagram.
