Eli Dunham
PLEASE
i feel like a burden to everyone around me
“that’s because you are”
the hiding moon
who names me
my sleepy brain waves
we can make all of these assumptions
but many times we are wrong
hold a peach pit
like it’s not
your heart
please
find me a mouth
or new dimension
to climb into
sew it into an effigy
& my heart will grow
like the shadow
of a candle
SAYS THE MIRROR
“if only I didn’t know you,”
B wakes up to piss &
Suddenly
someone else
TELL ME
tell me i’m your pet
that you’ll keep me
safe treat me
better than a person
not because i am
but because i am not
at least, not
the one you’re
looking
sigh
back home is a place i sometimes miss
until i am there & i watch the corn fields
& the talented people i confused for friends
they’ve long forgotten me now i was different
too afraid to talk too afraid to not i was my own
maze & then there was the rest of them who
are talented people that i confused for friends
this is an identity i did not mean to have
the sun’s thick but gentle warmth on my
face on my arms & legs eventually burning
into sweat claustrophobic &
anxious for any
where else
i thought i would miss you all
occasionally i do
i fed a flower-faced bison my
hands disappear into picking
bark off a green
forest of stars
constellations
my veins
for a moment *
i forgot
how to
die
Eli Dunham is a queer, neurodivergent, and disabled poet living in Sacramento, CA. They earned their BA in English from Illinois State University and went on to earn their MFA in Poetry and Graduate Certificate in Gender and Sexuality from Eastern Washington University. They spent three years volunteering as a Youth Mentor for LGBTQ+ youth and are now working towards an MS in Counseling at Sacramento State with a focus on supporting LGBTQ+ youth and individuals with disabilities. You can find their poetry in DreamPop, GASHER, Indefinite Space, Heavy Feather Review, Q/A and elsewhere. They have work forthcoming in Mantis.