“Red” by DMT

DMT is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist, born in Pretoria, South Africa (1998). A poet and visual artist, DMT's work often draws from literary, sociological and metaphysical influences. They write from an autistic and non-binary perspective.

A Word from the Author:

This poem is at the intersection of climate grief, Afrikaans girlhood and my identity as a queer person. To be queer is as natural as breathing, to grow up a girl is to grow up as an offering, as nature is too. The people who seek to misinterpret our existence deem it their right to destroy us, and then there is God.

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red 

i am queer because 

a. i didn’t survive into straightness 

b. my mother was a breadwinner 

c. i’m funny that way, ha ha 

d. i went off the path and the forest took me for a wolf 

it is sad because 

a. god says no 

b. the forest is scary 

c. i howl with a human voice 

d. the humans had sown rocks into their stomachs, convinced that nature is best consumed, that  forests are fires waiting to happen 

i left my church because 

a. my, what big eyes i had 

b. my, what big paws i had 

c. how sharp my teeth when 

d. the body is bread 

red riding hood was 

a. a screaming child  

b. god’s blessing to man-kind 

c. the future, a womb that carried a basket of sweets 

d. a necessary sacrifice, to the elderly  

and so 

with their pitchforks they came 

with their leashes and cages 

with their bibles, for ages 

into the forest 

as god watched

god, the birds in the trees as axes swung 

and smoke rose, 

an offering to the sky that only clouds could taste