I want to know what it is like to hear the word “Childhood” and not feel terror

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Arien Alana Reed, MFA, (he/they) a Pushcart nominee, is an award-winning poet and multi-media artist who paints/draws other gender-diverse and/or intersex people (especially those who are BIPOC, disabled, fat, old, undocumented, rejected, or have experience with sex work, homelessness, incarceration, or foster care). When not covered in paint and charcoal, he can be found volunteering on the board of Trans-E-Motion, a transgender advocacy organization serving California’s Central Valley. His unpublished collections have been finalists for the Kore Press, Grayson Books, Press 53, and Inlandia poetry prizes, and his poetic ravings and artsy doodles have somehow crawled their way into New South, Oberon, Florida Review, Sonora Review, High Shelf Press, J Mane Gallery, Allegory Ridge, and others. He dares you to follow his poetic lunacy on Instagram at @arienreedwriting and/or his artistic chaos @arienreedart to witness more of his slow, squeaky descent in blissful madness and outright gender anarchy.