by danielle rose
“The idea that the body is a prison-house, to which the soul is condemned for past misdeeds, is attributed by Plato to the Orphics.”
they ask / if this is my body // and i lie say yes
it might start with the conspicuous absence of childhood photos—then a process of testing for misidentification—questions that begin with oh please suddenly a hot iron scratching my stomach—& so i am learning to call unpleasant histories by their real names—such as what i demand of love—and that i used to be a boy—to think that if this body was a prison what happened when i escaped—i know that poetry is not light—and that we do not need another word for empty—i still do not know how to say that he put his hands all over me—or that i wanted to like it even though i did not—to think a dove will fly 1,500 miles to fuck and sometimes i can’t even leave the couch—even plato does not want to admit responsibility so he blames someone else too
Danielle Rose lives in Massachusetts with her partner and their two cats. She is the managing editor of Dovecote Magazine and used to be a boy.
Art by Michelle Johnsen, art editor
Michelle Johnsen is a nature and portrait photographer in Lancaster, PA, as well as an amateur herbalist and naturalist. Her work has been featured by It’s Modern Art, Susquehanna Style magazine, Permaculture Activist magazine, EcoWatch.com, EarthFirst! Journal, Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative, and used as album art for Grandma Shake!, Anna & Elizabeth, and Liz Fulmer Music. Michelle’s photos have also been stolen by AP, weather.com, The Daily Mail, and Lancaster Newspapers. You can contact her at mjphoto717 [at] gmail.com.