He Is Zen

Last Week Tonight, March 16, 2022

pink in the night

blood pools under my tongue where the words should be. id kiss you but i wouldnt want to make a mess. petals on my unmade bed, petals in the bathroom, petals in the toilet bowl as I lean over it pulling back my own hair. there’s petals in my hair, too, im sick with it. sick with you. you’re growing in me like a fungus, it’s fucking hard to breathe. take my breath away, i bet you need it more. am i infectious? do you want to be sick with me too, dear? the vines around my organs are long, they can wrap around yours too, if you’d like.

answer some questions and I’ll tell you what kind of straight person you would be

The corruption disquiets me so, so very much. People don’t like disease, they don’t like insects, not usually, evolution has taught us that they might bite, might burrow, might feed on you until you itch, or hurt, or die.

So what does it do? It gives you something that you do want. It envelops you in an all consuming love. It wraps its filth around you in dizzying circles until you’re swept off your feet, and you want it. You want to be surrounded with the filth, you want to share its embrace, your obsession, your happiness. And the love isn’t right. It’s love, but 15° northeast, it’s ill, and diseased, and it controls you, but it doesn’t hurt you, does it? Because you are more love than you are human now, not filth, not disease, not corruption, no. Love. Love that has replaced your essence with something that is crawling, something that yearns to spread. Fuck, man.

Hey. Why isn’t the moon landing a national holiday in the US. Isn’t that fucked up? Does anyone else think that’s absurd?

happy lunar new year!! 🎉

i meant to write this up in november but so many things have happened in between… i just wanted to express my gratitude and highlight some wonderful praise that If You'll Have Me has received. i still can't believe it's actually a book! a physical thing i can hold! thank you everyone who has reviewed IYHM or left me kind words upon reading. it means so much, more than i can even say.

thank you especially to the librarians and independent booksellers who champion these stories! i'm overcome with joy every time i see IYHM pictured in a library, and i'm so honored to have it featured on the Kids' Indie Next list as well as BCCB's Blue Ribbon Books for 2023.

it can be difficult to make art these days, and i sometimes question the point of creating at all. but the response to IYHM has been a great source of encouragement, and i hope to keep drawing and writing stories no matter what. thank you so much!

wishing you all health, happiness, and community ❤️

Everyone in the archives is so damn pretty because beauty is in the eye of the beholding

Me when I remember something I said ages ago that was wrong or my values no longer align with