Issue 5|transition|April 2016
TRANSITION | REFLECTION | REALIGN
Burn Something is a submission-based, queer-inclusive & community-owned alternative media space focused on amplifying the voices of women of color in the Twin Cities. The vision for Burn Something includes an artist collective that produces the zine and throws community-based parties and events. If you are interested in becoming a part of the collective, please send a private message or email burnsomethingzine@gmail.com SEND UR SHIT Send submissions to burnsomethingzine@gmail.com.
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Alexis Smithers
i began in the preschool urinal bright pink tinging the cracks along the flusher nap time means sneak away time means hide and seek and they shouldn't find me here but we always do. you could say i float over the sinks over the bodies not because i angel-ed in those moments but because i didn't have any other choice. it takes so long to unlearn the hurt burned into your skin but i come to school every day and sit front row paying attention on how to turn these ash into fire turn destruction into light my way home. and now im in this body mostly in these hands that are learning touch doesn't always mean demon that hold doesn't turn to crush that here isnt damned and maybe if i stay long enough i wont be either.
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Ella Frost
TRANSITIONNN MIX
Adrienne Doyle
D’Angelo – “Really Love” Mick Jenkins – “Healer” Hiatus Kaiyote – “The World It Softly Lulls” The Internet – “Girl” Alabama Shakes – “Gimme All Your Love” Erykah Badu – “Telephone” Bob Marley – “Could You Be Loved” Chance the Rapper – “Windows” Kanye West – “We Don’t Care” Kendrick – “You Ain’t Gotta Lie (Momma Said)” Q-Tip – “Do You Dig U?” Erykah Badu – “Me” Donny Hathaway – “A Song for You (Live at the Troubadour, Los Angeles, CA)” D’Angelo – “Send It On” King Krule – “Neptune Estates” SZA – “Childs Play” Kendrick Lamar – “Cut You Off (To Grow Closer)” Hiatus Kaiyote – “Molasses” The Internet – “She DGAF”
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Ella Frost
Mutual Work Lisa Brimmer you are louder this time cheekbones back small tender ankles locked on flat feet on edged teeth pressing diaphragm no dogs but red and dream� ice on the lake is skin on old soup we forgot like is that what I have to reintegrate most- the back of your head? you singing in a bathtub- your lavender soak hour/ours? which time was it that we danced to rev green?
is or past was or present chin, sacrum banged knees over rocksand how I confused about my mission and the appendix at the back of your why this book the one with Heracles when he kills that red monster I love? Is this where the mutual work begins? the first and second line of a poem I can not write because I have not tried? I wish I could show you the river because of how water cleans itself by throwing itself over rocks again and over itself again and over itself.
January Birds BriAnna M. Daniels THAT SHIT IS FOR THE BIRDS! Sweet January Birds. I’m so sorry you were there. Outside my window. January. Minnesota at 11 something am. Thank you. I didn’t know I needed you until you were there. Until I was so upset with you for being there. Chirping and doing all the other annoying shit that birds do. I don’t usually notice because I mean I guess I’m used to it. You always chirp that way, eager, rising, in the morning. In the Summer. In the Spring! Not in January. In Minnesota. At 11am. You were out of place, uncomfortable too I bet. I heard you, Birds. Before I heard you I was laying in my twin bed that was decaying from the middle. The springs poked through. No sheet. A blanket thrown over the hole was good enough. 2 pillows and an assortment of covers that weren’t meant for winter. Dark. Stinky. Sticky night stand for moldy tea and junky weed. When I heard you sing. I was deciding to slide back from my dreams, fantasies, the worlds in my heart and into my attic closet of a room, I was deciding to carefully roll my body from the decaying hole that nuzzled me all night. I was deciding to roll one and repeat yesterday. Or the day before. For the most part.
I wonder if the birds knew how wrong it was for them to be around. In January. In MINNESOTA! They must be able to feel it. Feel that the extra work they will endure because of someone elses fucked up faults.. They must have felt it was time to try some new shit if they wanted to see Spring. Its not much more complicated than that. Try some new shit. and Live. ...I decided to get up and wash this ass. Thank you January Birds for slipping all those secrets into your songs. Thank you for singing them to me like Spring serum.
Change
Margot Terc
3.19.2016
Adrienne Doyle
though you have left your body, I hold you in mine. jaw muscles tense with memory and stress joint ache pop hair shave mind race to reorganize a life sometimes I feel like you never left I hold you in mind. broad shoulders warm eyes smile bright yung wordsmith talents challenge this world to build itself better sometimes I dream you ever left
Cyclical
Anonymous
in the last seven months the waters (waters) have changed us (thank god) and the moon witnessed everything. waves raised us high/drove us deep to cleanse and crash and make us new and make us know that there is more than now.