Miranda Rosenblum’s poetry collection, Transformations, explores the intersections of being queer in a post-internet world. Responding to contemporary themes such as online dating and gender dysphoria, Transformations is a glimpse into love, loss, and identity during the age of the internet.
:::
iphone love story
we were in love
for a year
an easy thing
when you love the words in
little-thoughtless-blue-bubbles
more than you love each other.
///
girl on tinder
forever love is
to ease into each other
as the world spins madly on
a resting place.
to think
with a flick of the thumb
our life together, gone.
///
half-boy
i’ve been carrying a boy
around in my bones
since my mother dressed me in her hand-sewn
toopinktoofrillytootight dress.
in the pictures
you can still see my tear-streaked cheeks
my fist wrapped around the matching pink purse
my clenched smile.
since my breasts began to bud, to tear
out of my chest
like flowers, like weeds
a betrayal of my body
i still haven’t forgiven.
since i’d sneak downstairs
to scroll scroll scroll
in the hazy blue-white glow
searching, longing
how to be strong
to be masculine
to be sure
i carry him still,
that boy,
deep under thick skin and
brittle bones
but sometimes
i look in the mirror
and think
maybe
that it’s him
that it’s me
staring back.
///
#transformationtuesday
this
trans-
formation
as if
as if
i was born
naked, un-molded
ready
to be
always changing and
re-changing
my body, soul
shifting and moving and pulsing
and dancing
and
crying and
transformed again
creating and re-
creating anew
:::
Miranda Rosenblum is a student at the University of Richmond studying American Studies and Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. On campus, they currently serve on the search committee for the new Associate Director of LGBTQ Campus Life and participate in the student government as a senator. They’ve been involved in other activism projects at UR and around the city of Richmond, notably ART 180’s Performing Statistics and the digital exhibition A Walk in Her Shoes (awalkinhershoes.org). Miranda loves listening to people’s life stories and reading/watching anything created by queer folks. Some of their favorite things are thrift store sweaters, social justice movements, and a good book. Originally from Connecticut, they currently reside in Richmond, VA.
