How I Transform Myself, Looking at Photos in the NY Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)

no one exists   behind

the lens     no one

but another body

standing in darkness

 

1950s streets   they called

the beautiful women

transvestites

 

words

hadn’t changed   yet.

 

only in the dark

would their faces

stare out   like models

only not.

 

I am drawn

into her eyes    they tell

me    love

is transformation

I want

 

… [Click here to purchase a copy of the magazine]

Carla Schick

Carla Schick is a queer nonbinary activist who grew up poor with a love of language that fed their imagination. Along with language and poetry, they discovered jazz as a way to bring rhythm and spirit into language. Their works can be found in the anthologies Colossus: Body, Moonstone Press: Which Side Are You On, and Pure Slush’s lifespan series. They are most recently published by Sinister Wisdom, Fourteen Hills, and Forum. Carla was a 2023 recipient of a Literary Award in Poetry from Nomadic Press/SF Foundation.