BLOOD

A picture of Clay AD's book, Metabolize if Able, on a background of blue-lit white pills. The book cover is light blue with dark blue outlines of two faces looking at one another.

Sickos Against Iatro-Capitalism

Sophie Lewis reviews Clay AD’s debut novel, Metabolize, If Able.

This is a detail shot photo of someone’s wrist, their skin a color like milky coffee, and just barely visible on their inner wrist is a faded stamp, like the kind one may get as they enter a party or club they’ve paid entrance for.

reassembling histories by putting them into bodies that dance (rework) *

I never felt the impact of ideas and theories expressed about music. I feel that they are a kind of intellectual punishment to music for being so accessible in an epidermal, sensory way.

A fisheye, solarized appearance image of a person with a bob haircut and a staff blocking a black shape. The image is blue, pink, red, black, and white.

gestating vampires: four poems

The following selection of poems was written between March and June 2020, kindled by my personal experience with unwanted gestation during quarantine.

An image of Yoongi and Jimin from BTS, with a moon and flecks of light taken from the Ryder Waite tarot deck in yellow superimposed over the top of the image.

a/b/o verse—cancer

A/B/O verse is a parody of the white, nuclear family. In A/B/O verse, the world is made up of alphas, betas, and omegas. In addition to your primary gender…

An image of Megan Fox from Jennifer's Body projected on a white curtain, with flames across the bottom of the screen and "come home, steamy love" in yellow text across the bottom.

I’m laying down in a fetal position, knocked out by pain. Saliva drips from my mouth and I’m on the verge of passing out. I’ve taken a mix of random painkillers and they’re finally hitting. The pain stops; I have a mini orgasm.

A diptych of two images of plants coming through concrete. On the left side, a purple pansy comes up through a crack in a cement sidewalk, pictured from the side, with the sidewalk edge at a diagonal across the screen with street asphalt visible in front. On the right, A small treelike plant comes up through a hole in a concrete sidewalk, next to a metal grille gate surrounding an enclosed area and some garbage cans. The edge of the sidewalk and the edge of the gate from the first and second images meet at a point in the middle of the composition.

Normality

During the Corona time, I have been hearing the word “Normalität” almost daily in the news: the eagerness to return to “normality.” The following poem is a small glimpse of my normality.

Beginning, Middle (Age), End: script notes and revisions

A large Melbourne downtown strip club. 3am. Thursday. The year is 2005. 90’s r’n’b plays. Lights change rhythmically. A woman is at work.

A line drawing. A woman stands beside a well, her right hand slightly extended as she throws powder into the opening of the well. The other hand holds a small cup. A banderole, a type of medieval speech banner, reads “Make them all sick.” She is wearing a wide brimmed hat, tunic, cloak, and gloves.

Make Them All Sick: The Leper Plot of 1321

Greetings and God’s blessing upon you my dear husband, Monsieur d’Allee, on this, the 2nd day of June, the year of our Lord 1321.

I deliver bad news, of which, I am sure you are already aware.

Acedia: A Dustiness of the Heart

It’s the fourth century A.D. You’re a monk in the Egyptian desert, and you live in a hut not far from other monks. Every day you get up at dawn to pray, and you spend most of the rest of your day either praying or weaving baskets.

A slightly desaturated close-up image of a rocky outcropping with many candles in reds, pastels, and whites, some textured and some not. Some of the the candles are burnt and wax has spread. Behind them, a small circular mirror in an ornate brass frame is visible, and small flat stones are arranged around the candles. A bone resembling a human femur is visible on the left side of the frame on a ceremonial plate, and natural green foliage is visible in the background.

Excerpts from Plague’s Embrace

She was shivering like a baby unwrapped in the wind, adrenaline and espresso in her sweat. I wasn’t allowed fear until later — one price of her devotion.