In Image

Anyone would know me from Adam.
Artists have placed tasteful leaves over his groin.
His pink lips drip with the fruit.
Adam is identical to Eve in his shame-smile.

Artists have placed tasteful leaves over his groin.
If the leaves shifted, the gender critics would be pleased.
Adam is identical to Eve in his shame-smile.
He carries a long penis, resplendent with golden pubic hair.

If the leaves shifted, the gender critics would be pleased.
The cold air would reveal my deficit.
He carries a long penis, resplendent with golden pubic hair.
I carry second-puberty acne and sex drive.

The cold air would reveal my deficit.
I am made in the likeness of God.
I carry second-puberty acne and sex drive.
God made me and then made me again.

I am made in the likeness of God.
Adam and Eve were made in someone’s image.
God made me and then made me again.
What is a painting but a mirror.

Adam and Eve were made in someone’s image.
Sometimes at night I touch myself until I cry.
What is a painting but a mirror.
What is hope but an empty bell ringing.

Sometimes at night I touch myself until I cry.
The Nepenthes holdenii blooms like a snake.
What is hope but an empty bell ringing.
The fish in the tank look at me and swallow.

The Nepenthes holdenii blooms like a snake.
Adam and I have the same forehead: worried and wide.
The fish in the tank look at me and swallow.
Colors blend like a tornado in a bowl.

Adam and I have the same forehead: worried and wide.
We don’t know what God will do.
Colors blend like a tornado in a bowl.
What is falling but laughing backward.

We don’t know what God will do:
Sink the arc. Grab the salt.
What is falling but laughing backward.
The snake is a skinny hose.

Sink the arc. Grab the salt.
Anyone would know me from Adam.
The snake is a skinny hose.
Our pink lips drip with the fruit.

Remi Recchia

Remi Recchia is a trans poet, essayist, and editor from Kalamazoo, Michigan. A five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, Remi's work has appeared in World Literature Today, Best New Poets 2021, and Prairie Schooner, among others. He is the author of six books and chapbooks, most recently Addiction Apocalypse (Texas Review Press, forthcoming), and the editor of Transmasculine Poetics: Filling the Gap in Literature & the Silences Around Us (Sundress Publications, 2023). He holds an MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University and a PhD in English from Oklahoma State University.