I went back to my shire, experienced a homegoing of the soul, and found I was not the same. Every great legend tried to teach me that after the adventure the hero never goes home who they were. Wisdom is always won the war way, and it is why I am only now beginning to understand all the things they claimed I would when I grew older. If all life is a story and I am blessed enough to make it to ninety, then the first book of my trilogy is ending, and a new tide turns to carry me to book two-- a double entendre of the surrealist kind. As I leave behind this era, I still feel far too young to be considered any kind of sage, but what I have been through has rendered me an elder. I want to be someone the younger queers look up and see, knowing that though they may have their own epic battles ahead, at the end of all things, they will survive, thrive, and find joy instead.
The is the May 2023 installment of the 11 Months, 11 Readings series, which features a new poem each month inspired by an Oreanam Oracle card that is drawn by the author on the first day of each month.
Want to read more of my work? Check out my latest book, UNVEIL ME: the complete duology & other poems, which features my first two full collections, as well as a number of new poems, and even a few which were first published here on this newsletter. It is available exclusively in Hardback & Kindle on Amazon, or as an ebook through my shop on Gumroad.
Visit stillthestars.com to find out how to get copies of my YA fantasy novel in verse, which features the Oreanam Oracle deck in the story.
Featured Photo by Elayna Mae Darcy © 2023