Karuna Vellino

CapiTal T

They wanT To eradicaTe my Transgenderism
Take a scalpel To my skull
slice ouT
The Twisted ParTs
capiTal T
wiThouT even a pause
To look aT The life
squirming inside ready
To bursT
aT The firsT ThoughT of my breasTs
being cuT off
or how
TesTosTerone
makes my best friend
brim from ear To ear
when he hears The
gravel of his voice
They wanT us back in boxes
in backs of closeTs
anywhere ouT of sighT and unheard
They wanT To deTransition us
Take The surgeries
hormones and happiness
all in one grand swipe of a Talon claw
They want To
ban us from bookshelves
and schools
make our exisTence inTo an exTinction
They wanT To Take
our arT form bodies
and sully us
Target black Trans women
with Their razors edge of haTe
making The sTreeTs dangerous
a place where so many
so easily die
and are so easily forgoTTen
sisTers siblings broThers
in a vow
hands clasped Together
shoutT unTil your voice can no longer
we will noT be eradicaTed

Testimony

head throb heart throb
    thriving hum of
                                      perfume
and a new life
    blooming
                     in the slushy gasoline evening

guilt is an eating thing
and does its job well

           gets under the nails
under the flesh until
           you scrub raw and still can’t eradicate
the crooked thing inside you
             unnamable
      broken
                    a body splayed like roadkill
crimson
stains the concrete

at the crime scene
of your own death
you are the only witness
the only testimony

The Switch

electricity everywhere veins
sparking with it
                         the switch has been
                 flipped
         hairs stand on end
and there is something lost in you
like lighting morphing
                                                a bodies inner clockwork
there has been
             a fundamental change
                                                  the answer
is impossible to face
you are the only one
                                     who knows what happened
she made sure of that
now you go off at a hairpin trigger
a firework
                     on a quiet street
the broken lightbulb buzz
scares your mom back to high school
when suicide or psych ward
                                was the only option
the come down
                     can’t come down
fast enough
       no apology
                              makes sense or means enough
so her flash of monster erupts
                                      makes you shake
leaves the wake
                             charred beyond reforestation.

Karuna Vellino is a non binary disabled lesbian with a passion for writing and creation. In
2016 Karuna won the Carleton University Passages Short Story Competition for their
piece 6 Signs You are Going to Get Your Heart Broken. They later went on to write their
first poetry chapbook A Year In Violets, which was shortlisted for the Vallum Chapbook
Award and later published by Grey Boarders Books. Their poem The 80s won Carleton
Universities George Johnston Poetry Prize in 2020. They also received Canada Council
for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council grants to write and produce a staged reading of
their play Five East. They are currently working on staging a full production of Five East
and completing their second chapbook as well as their first full length poetry book. In
their spare time they enjoy ice skating, spending time in nature, petting dogs, making
collages and planning trips they can’t afford.