The Sibylline Menagerie

This small collection represents the work, study, and effort I put into bettering my craft. More than that, though, these poems were written from my heart, and they contain many vulnerable, fragile pieces of me. Many of the poems in this collection contain kernels of my life, my past, and it can be frightening to put such things on display. Nevertheless, I’ve chosen to because I’m proud of the art I made from my heartache. My professor, a queer man himself, inspired me with his own vulnerability, and it felt only right to follow in his footsteps.

A big theme and inspiration for my poetry is the idea of nonhumanity, of being an inhuman creature in human shape and trying to navigate a human world. You can see this in the poems “Dragon with a Human Face,” “Ode to Nonhuman Personhood,” “After Life,” and others. The experience of being a queer, trans, and nonbinary person between 2023 and 2026 has only made this idea resonate more with me than ever before. Much of the world would paint me as inhuman, and rather than suffer under the weight of their oppression and accept being considered ‘less than,’ I’ve tried to bear the burden with strength and grace and say, “Then I will be inhuman. I will be greater.”

This initial collection is small, but I hope to add onto it as the years go by. In that way, it is a living document, and I hope you follow along as it grows. If any of these poems resonate with you, take them to heart and know you’re not alone in your feelings.

If the world would make us inhuman, then let us be inhuman together.

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_{Cover photo for TSM was taken by Mark Olsen.  Typesetting by Linn Foster.}