it works like this:
things are never new—
just rearranged,
uncovered, broken
open. i was here
when the universe
unfurled & space
realized its
emptiness. i was here
when it bloomed.
a blooming. when
a small thing
becomes large
all at once & without
warning. we, of course,
do not understand
these types of things.
if you
think too hard
about it,
the law
does not account
for emptiness—
which did not exist
before fullness,
but can now be found
in all manner of
places. one summer,
i found an
emptiness.
it started in me
slowly
edges curling out
like the beginnings
of a flower. grabbing me
by the throat, stretching me
out & in. sometimes an
emptiness
is so large that a
thing becomes its
emptiness.
depending on
who you ask
i am a girl.
an empty one.
blooming.
blooming.
Malcolm Slutzky is a queer trans man and college student from New Jersey. In his free time, he enjoys studying physics and playing Scrabble against himself.