A review by jayisreading
Wound from the Mouth of a Wound by torrin a. greathouse

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

What a stunning poetry collection. greathouse reflects on queerness (particularly transness) and disability, as well as the intersection of the two, to give a glimpse of the violence and injustices these communities face. These poems are sensitive, much like the emotional and physical wounds carried by queer, disabled people. Some wounds remain open and raw, while others have healed but are ever-present, and greathouse does a phenomenal job to address the complexities of carrying such wounds, gracefully and fiercely addressing the pain, power, and resilience that come with being disabled and queer. Much to think about long after finishing these poems.

Some favorites: “Essay Fragment: Medical Model of Disability,” “Ode to the First Time I Wore a Dress & My Mother Did Not Flinch,” “The Queer Trans Girl Writes Her Estranged Mother a Letter About the Word Faggot & It Is the First Word to Burn,” “An Ugly Poem,” “Phlebotomy, as Told by the Skin,” “Still Life with Bedsores,” “On Using the Wo|men’s Bathroom,” and “Ars Poetica or Sonnet to Be Written Across My Chest & Read in a Mirror, Beginning with a Line from Kimiko Hahn”

Read for the Sealey Challenge.
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