standardize

the only silver lining of bigoted legislation is that now whenever your friends walk anywhere at a reasonable pace you can call them trans athletes and pretend to be scandalized—the only time I’ve ever felt athletic has been the endless run toward a world in which my body’s joy is no longer a crime.

together we get our exercise via stage combat & overdone performance art—we compete for whose gender can shine the brightest under summer skies in a world in which even that causes panic—go, sportsball, one declares at the latest edict

in which we’re only permitted to do anything if we’re not that good at it. isn’t that just self-perpetuating? just a chance to be framed as failures, transgressive form over all-desired function—we can't throw or catch a ball but according to you, we can break down every imposed structure without even trying. i guess that makes us invincible.

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mk zariel {it/its + masc terms} is a transmasculine neuroqueer poet, theater artist, movement journalist, and BashBack aligned anarchist. it is fueled by folk-punk, Emma Goldman, and existential dread. the author of VOIDGAZING (2026, Whittle Micropress) and BOY APPARITION (2025, Vinegar Press), it can be found online at https://mkzariel.carrd.co/, creating conflictually queer-anarchic spaces, writing columns for Asymptote and the Anarchist Review of Books, and being mildly feral in the great lakes region. it is kinda gay ngl.