Rose Zinnia

Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.

I’m Like if Mary Oliver Had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

by Rose Zinnia

a busted self-blazon / infodump in memes

i’m evolving from sadtrans to joytrans & g-d is my pokémon trainer

i only expect to have a final form by the circumstance of my being

perishable when i enter a room my brain calculates how many ppl might be clocking me & how

i am trying to let wonder & uncertainty dom me every day

sometimes i’m feral napcore audhd hyporheic cloudleaf unmasked pilled

tbh i’m not even trans i’m a sheaf of blessings that makes a soft noise when you strum it

when we trace back our wound to root it becomes unwound it mutates into grace

catch me divinizing the quotidian by becoming obsessed w this river-smoothed stone i found

i fully expect a mycelial network to fall in love w me for some reason

my/your face a coven of we a listening beyond the comprehensible

it is not enough to love the earth i must merge my body w hers entirely

i’m like if love were a kind of esoteric circle that exploded every six months & was also a woman

looking back i’m jealous all my bullies insisted i was a girl before i did

the word bad comes from the old english bæddel meaning hermaphrodite (pejorative)

attention is the beginning of devotion is something mary oliver said

my body being stored within the word bad is a form of devotion

my attention is both deficient & hyperactive i.e. i am touchingfeeling everything constant

devotion is the practice of belonging is something the earth cosplaying as me said

as a joytrans my special pokèmon moves are witness & surrender

i think i am just trying to have a nice day most of the time but i am open to bæddel days too

the coolest thing ab me is probably when you google my name

you are met only w flowers

About the Author

Rose Zinnia is a poet, novelist, essayist, teaching artist, editor, and designer. Born in Akron, Ohio, she is the author of Togethering (Ledge Mule Press, 2024), a chapbook of poetry & lyric essay. A 2025 National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing Fellow, Zinnia’s honors also include fellowships and residencies from Vermont Studio Center, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, and the Kinsey Institute. Her writing appears or is forthcoming in The Offing, Poetry, CV2, Black Warrior Review, Poem-A-Day, The Journal, Gulf Coast, and West Branch, among others. She holds an MFA from Indiana University, works at the LGBTQ+ journal and press Foglifter, and lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Queer Poem a Day

Queer Poem-a-Day is founded and co-directed by poet and professor Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Library and host of the Deerfield Public Library Podcast. Music for this fifth year of our series is “L’Ange Verrier” from Le Rossignol Éperdu by Reynaldo Hahn, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission.