This week’s poem, “Your Queer Body,” celebrates survival and healing. I love this poem’s clarion candor, the archetypal imagery of its struggle, and its powerful final turn to triumph, to pride.

Sampson Spadafore (they/he) is a white, neurodivergent, queer, nonbinary trans man who currently works at the Maine Humanities Council. He was the recipient of the 2022 Bodwell Fellowship through the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and Hewnoaks. They’re also a theater artist with a degree in musical theater from Nazareth College. They live in Portland.

Your Queer Body
By Sampson Spadafore

when did you realize you had to kill your Self to survive?
your Queer Body was fighting to surface
holding hands with your shadow
quietly screaming out the window
eyes teary with ocean tides and whirlpool memories

but you made it
and you mended what you needed to get here

Megan Grumbling is a poet and writer who lives in Portland. Deep Water: Maine Poems is produced in collaboration with the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. “Your Queer Body,” copyright 2023 by Sampson Spadafore, appears by permission of the author.