Words by Marceline (Marcyn) Cassiopeia Campbell-Ogbunezu | Pictures by Sujash Purna

Kiss me til there's nothing

It isn't a distraction, for every touch of your lips I undertake with intention

There's no sallow earth to kick underneath

No kitten sleeping on the curve of the wheel

The florets grow in patches, spring is taking its time

And that's alright, I've learned to wait

But when I lay in the grass, littered with dead leaves, residue of the seasons before

The Conneticut river pulsing with life mere feet away

Twangy folk music filling my ears

The wind shows me it's alive now and again

Tousling the pages of my book, and the scarf tied to my hair

There's so much to see here, so much to see

And I've got nowhere I'm rushing to be

Marceline (Marcyn) Cassiopeia Campbell-Ogbunezu (author, right) is a 20 year old transgender woman who lives at the crossroads of multiple intersections. She is a plus-sized neurodivergent Nigerian trans woman who is currently living in Middletown, Connecticut. She was born in Anambra State, Nigeria, and emigrated to the United States with her mother when she was 7. She grew up in Baltimore, Maryland both in the county and the city. She was a big bookworm and fell in love with poetry and art in middle school, writing her first poem, “The Ballad of Ricardo” a love poem dedicated to her first ever crush, when she was in 7th grade. Her passion only expanded as she got into high school, and by senior year had been published in many journals, including The Periphery, Adroit, Havik Poetry, and the Adirondack Center for Writing. She was accepted to Manhattan College on a dean’s scholarship and spent a semester there, getting a poem published in her mentor/speech teacher’s bi-annual journal before leaving due to financial cost and moving to Brooklyn where she spent nearly a year. She has dealt with racism, transphobia, addiction, homelessness, fatphobia, and has been at multiple points in her life plagued by severe mental health issues, but still the fire in her burns bright. She dreams to one day be considered as one of the great American poets, and after spending most of 2022 in recovery and pushing poetry to the back-burner, she has emerged into 2023 with a renewed vigor and a passion like no other and is hell-bent on making her

Sujash Purna is a Bangladeshi poet and photographer based in Madison, Wisconsin. He is the author of "Epidemic of Nostalgia'' (Finishing Line Press), “In Love with the Broken” (Bottlecap Press) and “Azans for the Infidel” (Mouthfeel Press). His poetry appeared in South Carolina Review, Hawai`i Pacific Review, Kansas City Voices, Poetry Salzburg Review, Gutter, Stonecoast Review, and others. His photography can be found on Instagram @poeticnomadic.

Photo: Photosynthetic Memory | Model: Lydia Brekken (IG: deebrekken)