Pull-back

Have you felt the awful feeling?

That blunt undoing of realfake skin

Collapse of fragile self in public sun

Cruel ruining of still-new day

There is no place here

safe to switch to other

and unchanged wind no longer reaches second skin

- inside self

- unseeable boy are you

still alive tomorrow?

Have you met the ugly pang of slow refusal?

and how not easy did you get away?

What mean persistence

strict and bullying blue

Have you been strung up bad embarrassed?

Roast naked and sad on the silver spit

Have you felt the awful feeling?

in the red tile room

where everybody knows

And show me your powers again

We kissed under the street light on the hottest day of the summer

He spoke about his supernatural powers, his words a bright yellow

I remember spending time with god, at around 11pm

Past my bedtime

All the noise of his T-shirt

Drunk and beautiful in the kitchen

Embarrassing—

To have your lips there for everyone to see

I remember the tractor beam, my tunnel vision paling in comparison

Flaunting my appetite for self-sacrifice

Begged him in the bright light, plunged in all manner of yellows

Body left limp on the linoleum

Powers found at the end of the city, covered in morning

Heart outside the chest ever since

More so moved from sleeve to hand

From hand to hand to pocket

Supernatural boy

Please come back in the silence of april for our first breath together

Keira Batten Coogan is a queer and trans artist based in Pōneke. He writes raw and potent lyrics and poetry for an alien audience. Keira's writing reflects themes of otherness, love, belonging, and nostalgia. He writes in many forms, but his poetry can be found in zines such as Girlz Brains, Man-Made, Winter Scribblings, and Spring Ramblings, as well as in the 2025 Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook. You can find out about more content from Keira at @_kkeira on Instagram. 

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