Sophie Hulet

PYROTECHNICS

My brain is a melting candle

And my willpower is a firecracker fuse

The threads that connect me are thin little wicks

They’re now wearing down after years of abuse

My neurons are dynamite firing disorderly

Passion begins like an uncontrolled blaze

The pitiful fuel tank, devoid of attention

Depreciates quickly; leaves only a haze

And through the smoke as I stumble

I sometimes catch glimpses of a sustained light

But stuck in the wax left over from collapse

My match burns out and I’m stranded in the night

OVERGROWN

I have a habit of moving next to graveyards--

Death’s tendrils grasp at me

Like the vines that grow around gravestones.

And I used to run because I ran from Death

But I could only outrun the living.

The graveyard vines wrap my lungs and drag me down

Before I can chisel my name into my own gravestone.

Their grip tightens every day—

As the graveyards creep closer with each new place my body rests—

How soon will I rest within them?

When will I be overgrown?

I have a habit of moving next to graveyards

But with each passing day and shallow breath

It feels like they are chasing me.

IN MY OWN SHADOW

I put on my old running clothes—

Impostor! A gazelle with broken knees

And I wait for the lions to ravage me

As I sweat and cower in my sleep.

My leggings swamp me—

My withered muscles as a skinny branch

Overwhelmed with the greenery of summer

Of leaves pasted on with syrup glue.

And as I tremble—

I relive every ragged breath I took

As my lungs turned to ice in the meat fridge

And crystallized in a distorted shape.

I apologize to the one I was—

To the one I was becoming—

To the one being unraveled

As their DNA unwound.

Sophie Hulet is a queer, disabled author and artist. They are a sociology student with a focus in queer and disability studies. They educate and consult on queer and disability issues and are passionate about teaching the history of the queer liberation and disability justice movements. Sophie writes poetry, prose, sci-fi, and speculative fiction and spends much of their time with their beloved cat, Daisy!