Emphatic, emotional, from a tender heart inside of tender meat. If failures and forgettings leave holes in our lives, Dunn teaches us how to fill them back up with our spoils—the shit, the tears, the broken glass and broken teeth. Failure & Forgetting is a cleansing ritual; it gets us back on the bus for the nervy ride home.
this is not form
this is the anthem
this is the crying
alone in my room
This is the third
time this week
this is the rot
the core the apple
like I always knew
you were a Rose
deep down
this is the holes
In my slacks
the holes in my ass
this is the times
we live and die in
this is the anthem to
a memory lost to
plague this lingering
panic like the blood
drip from the prick
of a rose thorn
this is a moment
between my sad
farts and the band
that played
this is the last time
we fucked on a bed
in a hotel on
folsom street
that was the last time
my farts smelled
like cum for
three days
this is the bomb
in the precinct
this is the patricide
the final suicide
the mark my words
my breath stank
and the smoke rises
from the north west
corner of this
is the Whiteaker
in the late 90s
this is the beguiled
new student to
the old designs
of thrash against
an ancient wall
this is the end
of an old trail anew
thought rendered
inescapable by drugs
because this is not
the form I meant to
carry, this is the cock
I did not mean to sit
atop, this is not
a maybe next time
this is the end of
a poem
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From G.L.I.T.S: “We approach the health and rights crises faced by transgender sex workers holistically using harm reduction, human rights principles, economic and social justice, along with a commitment to empowerment and pride in finding solutions from our own community. The first issue we address is that of immediate need/crisis support for transgender sex workers, including community members from the NYC area, across the US and globally through supporting asylum seekers from our priority communities. The next issue we address is health care and health resilience for transgender sex workers. We need to address this issue because our community is hypermarginalized and has a profound need for safe sex supplies and free/low cost health to address both trans specific and holistic needs. We currently work on housing since so many in our G.L.I.T.S.’ community are without stable housing, deepening the cycle of disenfranchisement. G.L.I.T.S. also advocates and educates to ensure health, wellness and inclusion of transgender people in our society and to address the stigmatization and criminalization of trans people because of anti-prostitution/anti-sex work laws.”