Love & Bees

By S.J. Blasko

My Instagram is full of things that scare me
love & bees
bees & love
All I know is that they're be(e & you)tiful
even if they both can sting.

In Love & Bees, SJ Blasko's fifth collection of poetry, the poet guides us on an exploration of toxic theology, chronic pain and illness, and the toll both take on the body, all the while skillfully juxtaposing those themes with the joy of knowing who you are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Squirrel House Publishing
• Release date: May 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781951882167

Book preview

by sj blasko

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Squirrel House Publishing

ISBN:

Copyright © 2022 SJ Blasko

Cover design by SJ Blasko

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law, fair use, and in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For permissions, please reach out to the author via [e-mail]

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Squirrel House Publishing

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for me,

all the other daughters of Eve,

and all my sick friends

<3

Potential trigger warnings for disordered eating, predestination theory, toxic religion, and poetic depictions of chronic pain & illness

foreward

at twenty-two

(at almost twenty-three)

I’m still not sure

how much talking about bodies

is too much

(and so

if you are reading this

I’m sorry)

and I’m still not sure how much anger is

allowable

before rage turns into

grudges

bitter as they

overstay their welcomes

(but if you’re reading this

I do not think I’m sorry)

I kissed my partner for the first time

on a Christian campus under their bed

and when I opened my eyes, they were

still there

no divine wrath had smote us both

only the divine love with which we’d been

smitten now for months

and if I was a younger girl

standing on theology of shifting sand

instead of verdant forest moss

I might’ve thought that God sent down

catastrophe the whole world strong

to punish us

like banishment from Eden after tasting of

forbidden fruit