Three Pieces

THIS IS FINE

A person stands in the middle, with red lines where the anatomical planes cross their body. They are surrounded by orange and yellow fire made of tissue paper. Peeking out from behind the fire are cut-out dictionary definitions of words like “systematic,” “handicap,” “positive,” and “cripple.”

An Average Day Falling Apart

A skull, skeletal hand, and heart are scattered among mushrooms and plants. Butterflies fly above, surrounded by definitions for “liberty,” “body,” “dissect,” and “manifold.”

Stonewall An Erasure, a Resistance

An erasure of a dictionary page that starts with “stonewall” and ends with “straight.” The remaining text reads “refuse to give in- obstruct a compliant dupe / bend the body forward / descend, condescend; check; impede; 1, halt. 2, cease; desist. 3, tarry; watch whose movement can be stopped. All senses derive ultimately from Latin historia, history. wander / stray. 2, spread irregularly or untidily. without bend or deviation. 2, upright; honorable. 3, regular; unmodified; undiluted / directly, at once.” (Slashes have been added in this description where they may help in clarity of the text.)

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Audrey T. Carroll is the author of What Blooms in the Dark (ELJ Editions, 2024), Parts of Speech: A Disabled Dictionary (Alien Buddha Press, 2023), and In My Next Queer Life, I Want to Be (kith books, 2023). Her writing has appeared in Lost Balloon, CRAFT, JMWW, Bending Genres, and others. She is a bi/queer/genderqueer and disabled/chronically ill writer. She serves as a Fiction Editor for Chaotic Merge Magazine. She can be found at http://AudreyTCarrollWrites.weebly.com and @AudreyTCarroll on Twitter/Instagram.