Like so many things in our community, asexuality exists on a spectrum. Some asexual people experience no sexual attraction at all, while others experience sexual attraction in certain circumstances, and there are a myriad of other experiences. Some asexual people are also aromantic, while others do engage in romantic relationships. Asexuality is different from celibacy, which is a choice not to engage in sexual activity - asexuality is a part of who asexual people are.
Celebrate International Asexuality Day with two poems by writers Sadie Lawrence and Harley Bell.
Sadie Lawrence
Earworm in B Minor
even when the world is silent,
i am not. there is so much noise
inside the body. sound landscape =
little sonic forest. those youtube videos
where they hook fungus up to a synthesiser.
voyeurs for the internal monologue of
death-sweet beings. i am
wretched
but catchy
in my gut gurglings. the full moon
of my cystic acne scar pulls the
gore tides of my stomach in
and out like stitches.
whatever lives under my tongue fizzes
i am harrowed by it
but relieved to know I’m not hollow
but instead sloshing
with thick pink inhabitants
and
sometimes
i swear i can hear the mites
in my eyelashes sing
and fuck
and cry elegies to life
and curses to the life they live on
Harley Bell
Beneath the blackbird
I speak to the sky
about the things
that pass through
my thoughts.
Even if I only receive
the silent passage
of clouds across the blue,
it is enough.
I am thinking
about patience
and kindness
and the way
even trees will bend
as if in prayer
towards the sunlight.
Flowers will open
and close
before I settle
into the necessary
slowness
of
this
conversation.
A blackbird rustles
in the leaves,
searching
for sustenance
beneath the dirt.
It is, perhaps,
a passing thought
but I am seeking
something similar
to stillness
like the way
wind
rests
in the air
my thoughts disappear
with the blackbird
and I do not think
to catch them.
It is enough.
Harley Bell is a writer, poet and facilitator. His background is in art and business. He is interested in the intersection of nature and mythology. He drinks too much coffee. @harley_b_writer
Sadie Lawrence (she/her) is a 19-year-old shut-in and distance student. She did not attend her high school graduation, cannot drive and enjoys stomping around. She is on a variety of spectrums, including the autism and asexual varieties.