Too/Not
Too much is what they call you
when your shape is unfamiliar,
when your neurons grow at a different speed,
when you speak in tongues too lilting
for them to follow the rhythm.
Sometimes we miss each other,
our movements and thoughts parallel.
Not enough because they can’t track
what they can’t sense, so we look
like we’re doing nothing
when we’re doing everything,
every motion, every moment a choice
to continue wading through
a current meant for different bodies,
minds that flow the other direction.
K.S.Y. Varnam is a queer, neurodivergent, and disabled Toronto-based writer, artist, and editor, as well as the founder of The Quilliad Press. They share a bedroom with two mischievious parrots, Riff Raff and Wobbles, both of whom regularly feature in their poetry. Much of their work also focuses on neurodivergency, disability, queerness, and feminist themes. Their work has been published in several journals, including Hamilton Arts & Letters, Plenitude, Metatron, The Quarterday Review, Breath and Shadow, CRUSH, and Transition Magazine.