Arianna Monet
Arianna Monet is a queer Black poet and performing artist from eastern Massachusetts. Her work can be found in FreezeRay Poetry, What Are Birds?, Journal, Gingerbread Ritual Literary Journal, and elsewhere. Arianna is a 2022 Zoeglossia fellow and a member of the 2019 Boston Poetry Slam Team. Source
I’m rewatching the She-Ra episode where Glimmer gets sick for the first time
and I keep mistaking the screen for a
mirror. By which I mean, I too was once
adolescent and unconquerable:
purple hair; a body unmarked by pain.
Then, the bright unholiness of onset.
She screams, glitches into crimson static.
In the right light, even pain can sparkle.
Blood cells glinting into oblivion.
Flicker of agony, scarlet against
the ego. Candescence of a body
as it burns itself undone. If I am
to live this way–neurons blazing, my fists
clenched proudly against a whimper–let me
at least malfunction in a way that shines.
Published:
2022
Length:
Regular
Literary Movements:
Contemporary
Anthology Years:
2024
Themes:
Health & Illness
LGBTQ+ Experience
Pop Culture
Technology
Literary Devices:
Bleeding Title
when the title of a poem acts as the first line
Conditional Statement
statements of an “if-then” or “unless-then” situation (although “then” is not used), or a probability
Transferred Epithet
When an adjective usually used to describe one thing is transferred to another.
Varied Punctuation
diverse use of punctuation.