Content warning: early pregnancy loss, miscarriage “All day, all night, the body intervenes…” In her essay On Being Ill, Virginia Woolf implores readers to develop a language in order to explore the experience of inhabiting a human body. No stranger to the myriad of ways the body can falter, Woolf considered this process integral to…

Growing up with a “mild” disability, I always struggled to find the place that I belong. I felt that some of the goals that I could see my friends achieving were impossible for me. At the same time, I always heard how I “didn’t look disabled”, so felt that identity didn’t fit for me either.…

The generations of gossip in my family have never known the word “boundaries”, despite the conservative roots from which my most salacious genes stem. Case in point: my grandmother knows that I have Herpes. She knows how I got it, who I got it from, how old I was when I got it, and, due…

I sip at the patriarchy with my morning cup of tea, lapping persistently at the periphery of consciousness I forget that tea burns and I burn my tongue, taste buds scorched and trust gone too I blow on it hoping it will cool down, hoping it will get better steam unfurls into oblivion Water changes…

And so it begins, Rinsing away the calamity and replacing it with calm Slipping into something more comfortable, hanging up coats and rolling out shoulders Temporarily forgetting about the nine to five Dancing with the idea of a glass of wine   The kitchen is familiar territory Where in each home, the cutlery is kept…

I’m in love with him but all it does right now is bring me pain Because he doesn’t think gendered oppression has a name   He says he can’t take on anyone else’s problems and difficult things, Like women’s issues aren’t completely intertwined with his   He cares for me, he loves and he supports…

The signs were always there. I was never keen on masculine interests. I surrounded myself with women and leaned in slyly when the topic of make-up, dressing up and boys inevitably arose. People would compliment my long flowing hair and I would be confused why the compliment made me feel so good. I used to…

I walk into his bathroom and slide the door shut, trying to do it slowly so it doesn’t creak as much. I look in the mirror just above his sink. My hair is scraggly and I have dark sweepers under my eyes. I’ve never really understood the term ‘dark circles’, because mine never look like…

Something very strange happened to me in the month of July. From being a woman confident in labelling myself a lesbian during the Pride Month of June, from being physically repulsed at the mere thought of dick – I found myself having flings with five different cisgender heterosexual men. June me would be so disappointed…

Water lilies dream atop a still pond surface tension keeps them afloat, the only tension here in this place, petals hum major chords in ripples they are carried the impressionist brushstrokes of Monet are alive here in this place, the ducks are gallivanting, not struggling to stay afloat insects fluttering, a beating heart the water…

I was 14 when the late King Richard III was uprooted from his resting place beneath a reserved car spot in an unassuming Leicester car park. Year 8 History was a bit of a cracker that day: the blinds were drawn and my teacher was lurking in the corner with a manic glint in her…

I see him That gaslight king, Charming and quick   No one would realise he was covering up such a little…   So long he has fooled Everyone he meets That all of these women Just fall at his feet   Like he doesn’t run his fingers through their hair And kiss their soul  …