For the collarbones and knuckles
of Tumblr post prettyboys.

For their bruises and bones
like that, like that. 

If we cannot have water
then we will have wine. 

If we cannot have wine
then we will have blood. 

If I must be a boy then
let me be boyish. 

If I must be a man then
let me be the kind of man

a woman dreams a man dreams, 
fold me within a body's

fantasy of a body, made
into a desire shone through glass. 

Form and shape are verbs, 
are a thing you do with both hands. 

In my closet hour I fumble
with a sudden waking body, a canon

sounding through dreams
of manicured frailty. 

I would be the fragile boy in a film
made to be beautiful through

mutual cruelty. I would be two boys
who amount to less than a man

and together make a woman
feel like she is inside herself. 

If we could be anything
let us be wrong in a hot way. 

Nora Hikari (she/her) is an Asian American transgender poet and artist based in Philadelphia. She was a 2022 Lambda Literary fellow, and her work is published or forthcoming in Ploughshares, Washington Square Review, Palette Poetry, Foglifter, The Journal, and others. Her chapbook, GIRL 2.0 (Seven Kitchens Press, 2022) was a Robin Becker Series winner. She is an upcoming reader at the 2022 Dodge Poetry Festival and a finalist for the Red Hen Press Benjamin Saltman Award. Nora Hikari can be found at her website norahikari.com and on twitter at @system_wires