Behind the Scenes of a Poem

published poem reveal + behind the scenes + craft tip

Earlier this month FIYAH magazine published my poem for their disability issue. What I love about FIYAH magazine is their commitment to publishing the narratives of the diaspora in all its glory through speculative (sci-fi) writing.

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“This is Science Fiction’s new Golden Age. That is what they would have you believe. Short fiction markets are better than ever before, exploring ideas of equality, gender, sexuality, neurodivergence, disability, and most of all what it means to be human…

So give us your Black elves, your Black space captains, your Black heretics standing against prophecies and insurmountable odds. Send us your Black wizards and Black gods, your Black sergeants fighting on alien planets. Give us all of your horror, SFF, and relevant subgenres. Because the future of [the Sci Fi] genre is now.

And the future ain’t going to write itself.”¹

isn’t this cover gorgeous?

I submitted a poem for ISSUE#31 (on disability) because a part of my [current] day job is being present with neurodivergent and medically fragile children while building rapport with their families. I wrote the poem “we stim to the moment” from my experience of addressing the limitations of bureaucracy, disability justice, and pursuing a more whole-hearted perspective of children with neurodivergence and disabilities.

Speculative poetry is challenging. When I started writing “we swim to the moment” I wanted to make sure the poem’s form said just as much as its narrative.