Devon Webb
Devon Webb (she/her) is a writer & editor based in Aotearoa New Zealand. Her award-winning work has been published extensively worldwide & revolves around themes of femininity, vulnerability, anti-capitalism & neurodivergence. She is a staff writer for Erato Magazine & Pulp Lit Mag, an editor for Prismatica Press, & a founding member of The Circus (@circuslit), a collective prioritising radical inclusivity within the indie lit scene. She can be found on social media at @devonwebbnz.
Easy read of the poems in the images above:
A RELAPSE OF MY YEAR 10 LESBIANISM
(cw: sexual pain/trauma, blood metaphor)
Why do I get a yeast infection
every goddam time I have a sexual experience
I think I’m having a relapse of my
year 10 lesbianism
male genitalia suddenly terrifies me again
I hate the way it asks too much of me
it is a dagger & I am the wound
personification of my own victim complex
There are so many things wrong with my body
it’s like it’s predestined to accumulate
pain & imperfection
I put myself in a glass box
don’t touch me if you won’t bring me back to life again
don’t kiss me if you’re just gonna be another curse
I drag my broken pieces
along threadbare roads made of bedsheets
all twisted & bloody
& no comfort for this searching soul
I want softness so why
do they all sink their teeth in
She is the colour of morning mist
when it looks pretty instead of cold & damp
she is soft sweet fizzy warm
I do not have to perform
only be here
She is one of all these women
aching with such fine beauty
I am one too
no longer a body so much as a soul……
cos they see through
such superficial longing
Such sharp hard violent play
that no longer feels like a game
I don’t want to be hurt anymore
only held
as I trace my own contours
my delicate darling edges
like a candle still burning through the dark
drinking tea instead of poison
healing instead of burning myself down
I am not your forest fire
just a fragile little sun
shining softly behind a private smile.
SORRY I CAN’T BE OPEN
(cw: allusions to sexual trauma)
I wanna be hot & polyamorous
but really I’m not as
experienced as I seem
I’m just experienced
with bad experiences
so I take everything so……
slowly
I think intimacy
comes in many shapes & sizes
& sometimes I just wanna dance
I’m sorry
I can’t be open, all the time
there was a girl like that once
but I lost her down the side of
too many unfamiliar beds
I catch scraps of my own vulnerability
& give them to you broken
baby you take me like a butterfly
& lay kisses on my wings……
I thought I didn’t like it so gentle
but there’s something about this healing
there’s something about this softness
there’s something about not having to
explain myself
again & again & again
I like the way my body curls up with you
I like the way it opens itself up to you
not like it’s scared
but like it’s coming home to you.
