by Neve Kamilah Mazique-Bianco

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three

I never played violin

but I did feel the bow run over my strings.

Plucked from the air, gravity claimed me

for the earth. Now

whenever the music plays,

my veins light up.

My nerves dance. 

My chest sprouts wings.

Celestial, though I’m feared.

eight

viruses have always been clever, 

transmittable, and people do get cleverer

with time sure but what about the people

we lose right now. I don’t know what to do

with my body. I’m writing. I’m riding this wave

here. Here.

sixteen

I didn’t write today. 

I danced, I sang, but I didn’t write.

I only jabbed at the carefully disguised wall

between worlds. Reaching up,

I touched fingers with Victoria’s evergreen ones

and it didn’t hurt. How odd, to be species

who cannot hurt each other, in this way, 

with contact, with exchange. 

Though my species has harmed

her kingdom irreparably before, and we often

imagine what vengeance the trees might reap.

In the cool dirt, her feet are fire that could suction

up the wetness in my lungs if I needed it.

In the warming air, her fingertips will grow

and spread lacy and blue. Maybe Vicky,

and her attendant bees, will save us when the time comes.

Maybe we’ll remember to return the favor.

Maybe I’ll show my friends the wall, and we’ll slip through.

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NEVE (Neve Kamilah Mazique-Bianco) grew up in the part of rural, small-town Jersey Imogen Binnie aptly says, “seems never to be shown on TV.” They claim among their ancestors, Edward C Mazique, the physician to the Civil Rights Movement, and Margery Williams Bianco, the author of The Velveteen Rabbit. NEVE is a choreographer, writer, composer, and multidisciplinary punk performance artist based in Duwamish and other Unceded Coast Salish Territories. He/They identify as a mixed Black/Indigenous Sudanese, British/European American biqueer polygender femme disabled country punk. They have been published in Curve, ModelViewCulture, Harlot Magazine, Plenitude, Everyday Feminism, and Maximum RocknRoll among other places. You should never mess with him but you can always fucks with them. Keep up at https://nevebebad.com, https://patreon.com/nevebebad, and on everything else @nevebebad.

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