Eli Dunham

PLEASE

i feel like a burden to everyone around me

“that’s because you are”

the hiding moon

who names me

my sleepy brain waves

we can make all of these assumptions

but many times we are wrong

hold a peach pit

like it’s not

your heart

please

find me a mouth

or new dimension

to climb into

sew it into an effigy

& my heart will grow

like the shadow

of a candle

SAYS THE MIRROR

“if only I didn’t know you,”

B wakes up to piss &

Suddenly

someone else

TELL ME

tell me i’m your pet
that you’ll keep me
safe treat me
better than a person
not because i am
but because i am not

at least, not
the one you’re
looking

sigh

back home is a place i sometimes miss
until i am there & i watch the corn fields
& the talented people i confused for friends
they’ve long forgotten me now i was different
too afraid to talk too afraid to not i was my own
maze & then there was the rest of them who
are talented people that i confused for friends
this is an identity i did not mean to have
the sun’s thick but gentle warmth on my
face on my arms & legs eventually burning
into sweat claustrophobic &
anxious for any
where else

i thought i would miss you all
occasionally i do

i fed a flower-faced bison my


hands disappear into picking
bark off a green
forest of stars

constellations
my veins

for a moment *

i forgot

how to
die

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Eli Dunham is a queer, neurodivergent, and disabled poet living in Sacramento, CA. They earned their BA in English from Illinois State University and went on to earn their MFA in Poetry and Graduate Certificate in Gender and Sexuality from Eastern Washington University. They spent three years volunteering as a Youth Mentor for LGBTQ+ youth and are now working towards an MS in Counseling at Sacramento State with a focus on supporting LGBTQ+ you and individuals with disabilities. You can find their poetry in DreamPop, GASHER, Indefinite Space, Heavy Feather Review, Q/A and elsewhere. They have work forthcoming in Mantis.