"Winterlight Ritual" by lae astra

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.