Nov 21, 2023
Outside our windows
framed in fog, first snow
dusts Tokyo rooftops.
You pass me the vial
with a brush of stars,
stirring the elements
of our bodies. Soft waves
drift from the studio
where you conjure music
from air and ask me to sing.
Before doing these injections
for you, I could barely look
at needles, but that must be
the magic of being trans
together. I defrost
doors and windows that open
into a glowing masculinity
of my own, and you
shapeshift beyond gender
into the one you have been
all along, brimming
with tender starlight.
lae astra is a queer trans artist and writer who calls Tokyo home. Their work appears or is forthcoming in fifth wheel press, Strange Horizons, ANMLY, manywor(l)ds, and elsewhere. They are co-founder of Far Future, an artist collective. Find them at laeastra.com/links.