Junkdrawer dreaming: poems (paperback)

This is a professionally-printed, pocket-sized paperback book (4.25 in x 6.875 in) containing 40 poems. It was written between 2019-2021, and self-published in 2021.

These poems dwell on themes of queerness and imagination, distance and longing, memory and childhood, fear and devotion, and the daily joys and dramas of being an elementary school teacher.

Click here to read a sampler of poems from this book.

After publishing Black Tourmaline and Holographic in 2019, I spent 2020 more focused on my poems than ever before. Throughout the year, I printed zines full of early drafts and mailed them to my reader friends; I learned how to use poetry to play, and these zines were my playground. For inspiration, I turned to movies set in boarding schools, remembered spaces from my childhood, and my life as a teacher, both before and during the pandemic. I got serious about my crystal collection, too.