Liberation Will Come & Euphoria
Icarus Olsen
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Liberation Will Come
Yet, it will be felt first
In a dimly-lit dingy bar mens bathroom,
behind a stall door
Paint chipping off, hinges barely hanging on
Smell of spilled beer and piss attacks your nose
For a good time call…. In sloppy red half-wiped off sharpie
On the right stall wall, above it
Neat handwriting
in honor of our lost brothers and sisters
Hand wrap around a plastic phallus
Pulsing techno, the room, it’s breathing
Crowd heard cheering for tonight’s Queen, death dropping
On the pool table again
For once, since the personal declaration of manhood
Your head doesn’t snap with fear towards
the door, as it cracks open, music slips in
Around another body joining your proximity
There will be no questioning fallacies,
Voices won’t be raised and newspapers
Next day will not have “dead” above
A deadname
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Euphoria
The bathroom wasn’t the beginning
Of the questioning, doubt.
A testing ground of nuclear power
Between the line of perspective and
Truth, as spandex wraps around me
Flatten causation
Like cold air hits the froggy mirror,
It was clear I needed to kill her in the tub,
Hold a head underwater, no matter the screaming
For me to walk out,
Resurrect into who I am
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Icarus Olsen is a transmasculine BFA student at the University of North Florida with a concentration in sculpture, but a love for anything involving creating. Outside of class, he spends time with his community in Jacksonville FL, organizing with Students for a Democratic Society focusing on issues, such as LGBTQ liberation, Palestinian liberation and Immigrant rights.
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