Poeaxtry's Prism

Spell. Stone. & Sparks that Ignite Change

Tag: Identity

Posts exploring self-definition, personal perspective, and evolving sense of self.

  • The Viral Trend of Unattributed Art Needs to End:

    The Viral Trend of Unattributed Art Needs to End:

    Best for:

    Creative Entrepreneurs, Poetry Enthusiasts, Art History Buffs, Ethical Consumers, Writers in Grief, Process-Oriented Creators, and fans of indie creatives.

    Why I Work at Restoring Artists Identity:

    We’ve become far too comfortable with the theft of art work turned social media gimmick. We see a quote, feel a pang of resonance, and hit “like” or “share,” never stopping to ask whose hands actually typed those words. In many high-traffic poetry and art groups, posts from “top contributors” and “ anonymous group members” strip the artists of their identity, leaving behind nothing but a “vibe” and maybe the artists initials.

    The Origin of the Rescue

    While my focus is often on supporting the indie creative community; I am against all plagiarism, stolen credit, and ill-attributed works in any form. Whether an artist is indie or traditionally published, if their work moves me, I will refuse to push their stolen content through social media algorithms. I am dedicated to providing them authentic credit while offering creative advice to others.

    Upon seeing this latest example today, I finally put together the framework for a solution.

    The Change:

    Instead of just scrolling past with a sigh, I am launching a casually recurring series on the Open Shelf. I will be finding the humans behind the ill-attributed quotes, poems, and prose, and restoring their credit. If I was moved by the work of course. The posts will also go on to use their work as a jump-off point to show you how to dismantle a spark and build something entirely your own.

    We are all feeding the cycle of uncredited, low-energy sharing. In order to do more than speak of change I want to see in art, media, literature, and well the world, this is how I will begin to actually implement some of these changes. This is restoration for the art that moves me while I also work at improving the ethics of crediting a creative person accurately.

    Along side these actions to create change I will layer art and literature history where fitting. As well as taking advantage of the opportunity to show other creative individuals you how sparks can be dismantled and rebuilt into something entirely new, sometimes not even remotely relevant to the piece that sparked your creativity.

    D.K. Marie – The First Creative Restoration:

    The piece I saw circulating today is by D.K. Marie, an author that has navigated both the traditional and self-publishing worlds to become an Amazon #1 bestseller.

    This post which I screenshotted to add below, from a large poetry group on Facebook is signed with a stylized -DK. I do want to mention there is not one word in the caption. And while I understand the image is aesthetically pleasing visually for your Instagram and TikTok feeds. That doesn’t apply here in a large Facebook group and not on Instagram or TikTok.

    Which also leads us to add the fact that, captions no matter the length do not affect your personal page’s aesthetic feed view. If the work is your art and you don’t want to caption it that’s valid as heck. Go on with ya bad self. However, ethical crediting of creatives for their work where it is due is a base level thing to always do.

    The Creator:

    D.K. Marie is known for her minimalist snapshots of poetic pain, swoon-serenading romance novels, and blending love, lust, and laughter.

    She participates in and advocates for independent published authors and artists by sharing her story of publishing through traditional and indie publishers. As well as things like sustainable careers for artists, readers choosing indie bookstores, and attending author fairs. D.K. also shares knowledge on the importance of connecting with your readers and promoting independent works.

    If you are interested here is a link to D.K. Marie’s Author website, as well as her Instagram, and Facebook author page. Don’t forget to support independent creative individuals and communities.

    How you can Stop the Spread:

    When we interact with or like and share a post on any algorithm based social networking site that doesn’t credit the artist, we are inadvertently burying the creator.

    If you spend a few moments and the same amount of energy on finding the original author, you will gain so much more. You’ll have an entire library of their work and content at your fingertips. Compared to a bunch of stolen work layered together to create a viral account lacking authenticity.

    I’m asking you to simply stop liking the stolen posts and start following the creative individuals who actually bled into their work.

    A cropped screenshot of a minimalist typewriter-style poem by D.K. Marie, originally posted without full credit. The original poster's name is intentionally cropped out to highlight the "ghosting" of creators, while the empty like and comment icons at the bottom symbolize the hollow nature of uncredited viral engagement.
    Screenshot from Facebook reflecting 0 interactions for the ill-attributed work.

    The History of the Artistic Snippet – A Creative Pulse:

    Art is rarely a solo act; it is more commonly a long-form conversation across spans of time. We see this clearly when looks at art, literature, and music.

    Music:

    Let’s look first into the Music Production industry. Did you know that EDM and Hip-Hop artists take a four-second snippets of old records and layer them under a new beats? Thereby creating a completely different emotional landscape. This is “sampling” or taking the bones of the past to build the house of the future.

    This can be used as a generational connection where new artists work is used to acknowledge older generations work. While the artists reintroduce “forgotten” sounds to a contemporary audience. Homage has been paid through many art forms, even in early jazz, musicians would “sample” melodies live to show respect to their peers skill.

    Daft Punk famously took disco and funk fragments and rebuilt them into futuristic anthems like “One More Time.” Hip-hop finds its origins rooted in looping drum breaks from funk and soul records.

    Literature:

    Allusions in literature act as shorthand, like a hyperlink to another time. This allows an author to pull in the emotional weight of a past work without explaining it from scratch. For example, James Joyce’s Ulysses uses a massive “sample” of Homer‘s Odyssey. Therefore layering the grand myths of ancient Greece onto a single day in 1904 Dublin.

    Modern authors often “talk back” to the classics to challenge their perspectives. Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea is a reimagining of Jane Eyre, giving a voice to the “madwoman in the attic” and challenging the original narrative.

    Poetry:

     A poet takes an existing text maybe a Shakespearean sonnet or even a legal document. They then erase words until a new poem remains, leaving us with erasure poetry.

    Ronald Johnson’s Radi Os is a “sampling” of John Milton’s Paradise Lost; by removing letters from the title and text, he found a brand new, minimalist poem hidden inside the 17th-century epic. Effectively using hidden dialog to act as a physical conversation with the source text.

    Visual Art:

    Appropriation art in visual arts, is when artists take recognizable imagery and recontextualize it. The “readymade” Marcel Duchamp famously “sampled” a mass-produced urinal. He even signed it, and named it Fountain. Which forced a conversation about what defines “art.” Famously, Andy Warhol exactly copied the label of a Campbell’s Soup can. When he moved it from a grocery shelf to a gallery, he changed the “emotional landscape” from a simple lunch item to a commentary on consumerism.

    Historically, the “greats” did exactly what I am doing today:

    1. Response Poetry: In the 17th century, Sir Walter Raleigh famously wrote “The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd” as a direct, cynical rebuttal to Christopher Marlowe’s idealized love poem.

    2. The Cento: A classical poetic form composed entirely of lines borrowed from other poets. The skill wasn’t in the “theft,” but in the new meaning found through the arrangement.

    3. Modern Intertextuality: From the one-liners who gained fame by stripping poetry down to its skeletal essence (like Insta-poets Rupi Kaur, Atticus, and Nayyirah Waheed) to the layered samples in modern digital art. We all are using another’s to spark to break through or combat writer’s block. This acts as a legitimate, generational-honored exercise for your creative muscles.

    My Recreation: Knowing You Don’t

    I took the spark of “missing someone” from D.K. Marie’s work let my mind wonder. Instead of a lover the finality of life’s end drew me into reflecting on the loss of my mother. She is not “roaming the earth” physically at least; there is only the silent cold chill from the wind of what is no longer possible.

    Knowing You Don’t

    The hardest part about missing you is knowing

    you don’t walk with me

    through the trees.

    You no longer get to feel the warmth of an evening breeze

    or

    the sharp, cold snap as lake water takes your breath away momentarily in the summers heat.

    where we’d spent many of our lazy days,

    Now, I’m left watching the water ripple into nothing.

    This isn’t just another argument between child and parent;

    The door didn’t slam behind you,

    This is not a few days of heated silence between phone calls.

    The floorboards are aching to creak under the weight your angry return. When you had to just say one more thing.

    I would give up my life to hear you say any word… one more time.

    The rug is too thin to hide this.

    No matter how hard I try to sweep the truth under its surface. It will not fit.

    The hardest part is the finality in the cycle. It is knowing I can still feel your energy

    You clinging to the bark of the oaks everywhere I roam.

    Though it is but a cold winter wind that could never compare to the warm breeze of you being here.

    I’d take back every day we were not speaking… every heavy, wasted heated hour…

    for just a fraction of time in return with you,

    had I understood then what I’ve perfected now…

    The Artistic Lineage of “Knowing You Don’t”

    This poem is the descendant of a breakup quote, but the DNA mutated into a study of permanent loss. In the lineage of response poetry, I am not answering the original author’s romantic longing; I am answering the silence she described with the physical reality of a grave. Yes heartbreak sucks but if I had the chance I’d have 300 broken hearts a day if I never had to live without my mom again.

    Exercise Your Muscles: The Prompt Guide

    This post is an attempt to rectify artists ethical crediting, a look into my creative process, and a call to action to help be the change. If you want to make this a creative habit, are interested in ways to combat writers block, or if you are curious about my creative prompt collections look no further.

    I currently offer a digital creative prompt journal for $3.50! Providing you a way to keep your creative muscles moving through art, literature, and or poetry. Receive seventeen creative prompts and the information on where they are from. As well as my personal poem created from each, feel free to add to, redo, or completely make it your own from scratch .

    Amazon. Etsy. Google Play Books. Gumroad. Payhip. $3.50

    Or

    Read for free in exchange for your 100% honest review by form or emailing poeaxtry@gmail

    A Call to Creative Integrity

    Can we stop settling for the unethical ill-credited quotes from other artists work? If you see art that moves you, and it’s posted by someone other than the artist without credit… Please take the few minutes to find the person who created it.

    Start supporting the art source. You can even use that inspiration to fuel your own creative evolution. True creativity isn’t about where you start; it’s about the integrity of the journey you take from there.

  • Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026: Battle the Anti-Trans Bill

    Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026: Battle the Anti-Trans Bill

    Best for:

    Transgender individuals, gender nonconformists, intersex individuals, queer folk, advocates, socio-politically involved people, and those who want to stop HB249.

    A screenshot from the Ohio legislature website showing opposition submissions from community members, including Axton Mitchell from poeaxtry with a red square button to download their testimonies.
    Proof of my official submission on the Ohio House website; my voice is now a permanent part of the 136th General Assembly’s history.

    The Record of Our Existence –

    Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026:

    On March 14th, 2026, I sent my testimony into the House of Representatives as HB 249’s time to sink or swim was approaching.

    House bill 249 is a “model bill” designed to push the trans community, gender nonconformists, and drag artists alike out of public life. Attempting to do so by using vague “adult cabaret” language to criminalize our presence. While the House vote was 63–30 in their favor, the fight has now reset.

    HB 249 is officially in the hands of the Ohio Senate. This is where we build our firewall.

    I am sharing the original House testimony I submitted, here to show you that advocacy is a tangible, documented act. We are not just screaming into a void; we are putting our names, our businesses, and our stories on the permanent record.

    Yelling
    Free speech
    But controlling what the news say
    The Lorax called, it’s time to find a new shade
    Ru Paul’s never seen a beat that bad on drag race

    – Earth to Eve

    The Blueprint – My House Testimony Receipts:

    “You can't really know where you are going until you know where you have been,” so said the late, great Maya Angelou.

    I put my business, Poeaxtry, and my name on the official record to further prove that transgender and gender nonconforming individuals are here to stay, as we always have been. Our community cannot and will not be ignored.

    Screenshot of the New Edition to Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026. This text explains the adult cabaret portion of the bill white background black text
    The “Red Flags” in plain text; this is the language they are using to categorize us as a “performance” rather than as people. This is the actual verbiage used in Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026.

    How Allies & Family Build the Defense:

    Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026:

    In Ohio we are pivoting to the Senate Judiciary Committee, and this time, we need a broader coalition. If you are an ally, a parent, or a concerned neighbor, your role is to change the narrative.

    • 1. Break the “Common Sense” Propaganda:

    The proponents of this bill claim it is about “protecting children.” Our most useful move is to show people other actual people’s testimony.

    When you show a person the actual legal definitions, they can see the overreach for what it is. Education is the first step toward stopping the Senate from moving this bill to a floor vote.  

    • 2. The Ally Advantage:

    Advocates, allied people, and family members in support of transgender individuals and other people who don’t conform to gender norms, have a unique power to combat Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026.

    When you testify, you are telling the Committee that this bill doesn’t just “protect” some families; it threatens all families by giving the state the power to decide who is “obscene.” Your testimony proves that the trans community is supported by a network of voters that the Senate cannot afford to alienate.

    Submitting Your Senate Testimony in Opposition of Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026:

    The Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Senator Nathan Manning, is where this bill must be stopped. Here is how we flood their office with “oppositional” testimony.

    The 24-Hour Rule

    In the Senate, your testimony and the Witness Information Form must be emailed to the Chair’s office at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled hearing. This is a strict deadline; if the meeting is at 9:45 AM on a Wednesday, your email needs to be sent by Tuesday morning.

    Drafting Your Statement

    • The Salutation: “Chairman Manning, Vice Chair Reynolds, Ranking Member Hicks-Hudson, and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
    • The Position: Clearly state at the beginning: “I am writing as an Opponent to HB 249.”
    • The Personal Touch: Talk about your life in Ohio. If you are a parent in Newark or a shift worker in Belmont County, mention it. Senators should care about their constituents.
    • The Ask: Explicitly tell them: “I urge you to vote NO on HB 249 and keep this bill from reaching the Senate floor.”
    Testimony submitted in opposition of HB249 photo has black header white body background and black text showing Axton Mitchell’s full testimony
    Testimony I submitted to the House of Representatives to oppose HB249

    Please explain it to me
    The man in charge of the economy’s
    Got 6 bankruptcies
    Asking ChatGPT
    To define GDP
    Defunding education, when half the country can’t read
    Well now its clicking for me
    You need the people asleep
    And knowledge is the greatest threat to propaganda machines

    -Earth to Eve

    Support the Opposition of Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026:

    • Join a Lobby Day: Collective Physical Presence

    A “Lobby Day” is not just a meeting; it is a show of force. When groups like Equality Ohio or the ACLU of Ohio organize these days, they provide the training and the talking points you need to walk into a Senator’s office with confidence.

    Why it works: Legislators see hundreds of people in the same colored shirts walking the halls; it reminds them that their “yes” vote has a human cost.

    What you do: Sign up for the Equality Ohio mailing list or check their “Events” page immediately. If a formal day isn’t scheduled yet, gather some friends, drive to Columbus, and ask for a 15-minute meeting with your Senator’s aide. You don’t need an invitation to be a constituent in your own Statehouse.

    • Tag Them Constantly: Digital Accountability

    Posting your testimony is step one; making sure the Senator has to see it is step two. You need to tag their official office accounts, not just their campaign accounts.

    • The “Constituent” Signal:

    Always include your city or zip code in the post. Senators prioritize their own voters. Use a phrase like: “As a voter in [Your City], I am tagging Senator [Name] to ask why they are supporting the vague and dangerous language in HB 249.”

    • How to Tag:

    Most Ohio Senators use a standard format for their handles (e.g., @OHSenateGOP or their specific name). If you can’t find them, tag the Senate President Matt Huffman (@MattHuffmanOH) because he controls which bills actually move to a vote.

    • The Share Chain:

    When you see someone else post their testimony, share it and tag your Senator again. We create a digital wall of opposition that they cannot scroll past.

    • Inform Your Neighbors: Localized Education – Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026:

    Most people in your community probably think Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026 is “common sense” because they haven’t read the actual definitions in Slide 3, or they may be taking everything at face value and not reading the fine print.

    • Community Meetings:

    Bring printed copies of the Ohio HB 249 Senate, 2026 definitions to your local city council meeting, school board or other community related meetings.

    • The “Red Flag” Script: Tell them: “This bill isn’t about what the headlines say; it’s about giving the state the power to decide if your neighbor’s clothing or presence is ‘obscene.’ Here is the literal text.”

    • The Library/Coffee Shop Move:

    Print out a small “How to Help” flyers with a QR code leading to this guide, or any other helpful resources and leave them at local hubs.

    We Are the Firewall

    The anti transgender rhetoric relies on us getting tired, and our advocates just moving to the side and letting their bigotry slide.

    However, we are a community that knows how to survive. A lot of us thrive in these fight or flight situations. We know how layering our advocacy, from social media comments on Facebook to formal testimony in the Senate. They are making the political and social cost of this bill too high to pay.

    Transgender people, drag performing artists, and gender nonconformists alike are not a “performance” to be managed; we are the public that they serve, just the same.

    Let’s make sure they remember that when the Senate gavel falls. I am still waiting to be shown where the United States Constitution, the Bill of Rights, or Bill of Rights says anything about a person makes them deserving of less than anyone else. The Declaration of Independence promised life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were written to codify and protect those very rights for every one of us.

  • Ohio HB 798: The “Erasure Act” & the Cost of Visibility

    Ohio HB 798: The “Erasure Act” & the Cost of Visibility

    Best For:

    Political science Majors, transgender and gender non-conforming people, advocates, and those who fight for equal rights.

    The GOP’s Attack on Visibility on TDOV – Coincidence? Irony?

    The irony of House Bill 798 being introduced on Trans Day of Visibility (TDOV) isn’t lost on anyone. While we spent March 31st celebrating our existence, Rep. Josh Williams (R-Sylvania Twp.) was filing paperwork designed to make that existence legally invisible.

    This isn’t just another “bathroom bill.” This is a “Map of Hell” expansion that moves the goalposts from “protecting kids” to erasing adults. After the manufactured moral panic and outrage over Target selling chest binders and gaffs, the mask has finally slipped all the way off. In case you didn’t get this already, they don’t want to “protect” kids; they want us to stop existing in public, and honestly probably in private as well.

    Ohio HB 798 The New Legal Definition

    A Trap for the Transitioned:

    Ohio’s HB 798 doesn’t just use the word “sex,” it seeks to legally define it as “biological sex,” specifically determined by “internal and external reproductive anatomy” and “genetics” at birth. If you corrected our documents whether a decade ago or three months, this is a calculated attempt to make our current legal status “erroneous.”

    By narrowing the definition to chromosomes and anatomy at birth, the state is trying to create a legal “Ground Zero” that ignores medical transition, court orders, and any amount of lived experience. It turns our IDs into a “lie” in the eyes of the state, regardless of what our passports, birth certificates or social security records say.

    “Protecting Children” to Erasing Adults Ohio’s HB 798:

    For years, the rhetoric was centered on “protecting the youth” from permanent changes. But Ohio’s HB 798 proves that was a lie, but I’m sure like me you were already aware of that. As a transgender female to male who legally has changed his name and gender marker back in 2016, this bill feels like a targeted attempt. Ohio’s GOP wants to try and reach back into my past while systematically undoing my present, the same goes for everyone else like me in Ohio.

    The bill doesn’t just stop at K-12 schools; it targets the very foundational documents of adulthood:

    • Marriage Licenses:

    It seeks to freeze sex markers, ensuring your “biological sex” is the only thing the state recognizes on your wedding day.

    • Death Certificates:

    It mandates that even in death, your true identity can be erased, forcing a “biological” marker onto your final record.

    • The “Bounty Hunter” Clause:

    It allows private citizens to sue institutions if they “perceive” someone of the opposite sex in a restroom. This isn’t about safety; it’s about state-sponsored stalking.

    They told us it was about the children until they realized we weren’t going away. Now, they’re coming for our marriages, our dignity, and our right to die with our names intact.

    – Axton N. O. Mitchell

    My Wedding:

    I am getting married in October. This bill isn’t just a headline for me; it’s a shadow over my ceremony. While I have lived my truth for over a decade, the state of Ohio is trying to build a legal cage around the word “biological.”

    They want to make being trans so uncomfortable, so litigious, and so bureaucratically exhausting that we simply stop talking. They want us to live the lie because our truth is too inconvenient for their campaign trail.

    It is a pursuit of our identity that follows us literally to the grave, attempting to erase the life we actually lived in favor of the one they wanted for us.

    – Axton N. O. Mitchell

    Why Ohio’s HB 798 is a House of Horrors:

    • Retail Panic Result: This bill is the direct descendant of the rage sparked by binders, gaffs, and pride merch. It’s the legislative version of screaming in a Target aisle.
    • The Litigation Trap: By allowing lawsuits based on “perception,” Ohio is encouraging a culture where every stranger is a self-appointed gender inspector.
    • The Permanent Record: By banning changes to birth and death certificates, they are attempting to ensure that no matter how you live your life, the state gets the “last word” on who you were.

    When Existence Became the Crime:

    I saw the change pretty clearly. First, they said it was about “protecting children” from hormones and surgery, more permanent changes. Then, the goalposts moved to puberty blockers, and we already knew something was coming.

    Finally, when the moral panic shifted to Target putting out chest binders and tuck-friendly swimsuits, the mask fell off completely.

    They realized that transgender people and other gender nonconforming individuals aren’t just in clinics. We are in the woods, the parks, and in the workforce.

    Ohio’s HB 798 is the legislative response to that realization. It’s no longer about medical “safety“; it’s about making the everyday act of buying a binder in a store or using a public restroom a legal liability.

    They are trying to make our existence so litigious that corporations and schools are “scared” to accommodate us.

    Visibility without protection is a trap. They want us to be seen only so they can find us more easily

    – Axton N. O. Mitchell

    The November Ballot-

    Voter ID & the Erasure Act

    We cannot ignore the timing. With Ohio’s strict photo ID laws, any bill that muddies the water of what constitutes a “legal” sex marker is a threat to our right to vote.

    As we fight for the Ohio Equal Rights Amendment on the November 2026 ballot, bills like Ohio’s HB 798 act as a distraction and a deterrent.

    They want us so bogged down in fixing our birth certificates and worrying about bathroom lawsuits that we lose sight of the power we have at the polls. This isn’t just a bill; it’s a hurdle placed in front of the ballot box.

    We Are Here To Stay –

    Death BEFORE Detransition!

    Ohio’s HB 798 is currently just a house bill. A “taxpayer-funded press release,” as some have called it. It hasn’t passed yet, not even close and with my wedding coming up in October, I refuse to let a desperate bid for a Congressional seat ruin the joy of my big day.

    We’ve watched this house of cards being built, from the first House bills that is on its way to the Ohio Senate. Today is April fools day one of my favorite holidays. Though, for a moment I actually tried to act like it was a sick prank.

    Yet, you and I We see the map they are drawing. As we head toward the November elections and my own walk down the aisle, remember: they can change the paperwork, but they can’t change the truth of who we are.

  • Transgender Day of Visibility 2026 – Strength, Survival, & Being Seen:

    Transgender Day of Visibility 2026 – Strength, Survival, & Being Seen:

    Best For:

    Transgender & Gender Nonconforming People, Advocates & Allied Humans, Openminded Individuals, Those Who Are Exploring Gender, and Those Who Wish to Educate Themselves.

    What Is Transgender Day of Visibility 2026 – Why It Matters:

    Today, March 31, 2026, the digital landscape is saturated with the colors of the trans pride flag. Timelines fill, brands post statements, and visibility becomes something that can be performed in seconds and forgotten just as fast as the day ends. For many, Trans Day of Visibility is reduced to aesthetics. A selfie. A repost. A temporary alignment.

    For a binary presenting transgender man navigating the professional, medical, and social realities of 2026, visibility is not a costume. It is not seasonal. It is not always an optional choice. It is tactical, beautiful, heavy, freeing, and often dangerous.

    Leaving a lot of transgender people who do not, or cannot live stealth have taken to saying that “we are visible for those who cannot be.” That statement gets repeated every year, but rarely is it unpacked.

    Some of us simply put cannot be visible because the conditions are more hostile now than ever in my life. Transgender individuals experience safety as an uneven frame with no real filter.

    Visibility is not evenly distributed. It is carried with a heavy rhetoric and stigmatization.

    Transgender women and men a like all know that being seen still carries consequences that range from social isolation to systemic neglect to extreme abuse leading to death. The world has not evolved past that truth, if anything we have somehow become less accepting.

    Until visibility stops being a risk calculation, it is not freedom. It is risky exposure. That means one of us still choose to live our truth, regardless of the repercussions, and that is how we are visible for those who cannot be.

    The Origin of Transgender Day of Visibility –

    Why March 31 Exists:

    To understand the weight of this day, you have to understand what came before it.

    Before 2009, public recognition of transgender lives was largely confined to Transgender Day of Remembrance. Visibility was tied to death only, if you look at the bigger view. Names were read only after their lives were taken. Stories were told after it was too late for those people to tell them with their own voices.

    Rachel Crandall-Crocker created Trans Day of Visibility as a direct response to that imbalance. The intention was simple and necessary. Trans people deserved to be seen while alive. Not as statistics. Not as tragic narratives. As full, present human beings.

    March 31 was chosen to create space outside of mourning.

    Over time, the language shifted. Awareness replaced urgency. Awareness is a passive tool when used in this manner . It requires nothing put a post on your Facebook one day of the year saying you care, even if you don’t.

    2026 is not about awareness. It is about presence.

    Visibility now requires refusal to be minimized as well as an equal amount of refusal to be spoken for. It requires existing without distortion.

    We are not a monolith. We are not a campaign. We are not a symbol.

    The Brutal Cost – Remembering Sam Nordquist:

    A Life Taken far too Soon:

    Any conversation about visibility that avoids consequence is incomplete, can I understand the original want for this day to stay away from grief. When you look at the bigger picture, you’ll understand that that’s simply impossible with the way things are going on at this stage…

    Sam Nordquist was a 24-year-old biracial and transgender man. Along with being trans this beautiful young man was a group home aide. Most importantly he was a human being with a future that should have continued. We will not stop until Sam gets without justice. There is not peace without any peace. We cannot continue to have hope, realistically.

    In the beginning of 2025, Sam’s life was taken tragically in the name of “love”.

    The System that Dropped the Ball:

    His death reflects a multi-agency systemic failure. His family raised concerns. His mother asked for help. His sister asked for help. He went to adult protective services and asked for help and they sent him back there. These monsters were staying in a hotel turned into an apartment complex for homeless people. Yet no one heard them from the walls as thin as paper. Recently, Kayla and her mother Linda were in the New York area on video they were screaming from quite a distance away from Patty’s Lodge, people came out they heard them. Where were the people at that should’ve heard Sam? The complex was fully “rented” for lack of better words.

    Intervention did not come in time. At the time a police officer local to the area of New York was quoted telling Kayla Nordquist that she just watched too many true crime stories in her brother’s fine. I hope the cop eats those words daily. I forgot they are called to protect, serve, and pass judgment the fucked up ways of America’s boys in blue.

    Visibility is NOT a Magic Cloak:

    Visibility does not guarantee protection and being known does not guarantee response. Systems can and do fail even when warning signs exist. When you’re living in a system that system wants to erase this is what help looks like.

    For many trans men and women, especially those who are not white visibility increases scrutiny without increasing safety in any form.

    Visible for Those Bound by Fear and Survival-

    Transgender Day of Visibility 2026:

    When we say “visible for those who can’t be,” we are describing our layered reality.

    • The Stolen Youth:

    Trans youth facing restrictions on healthcare, education, and participation. As well as new bills being geared at adults as well.

    • The Stealth and the Scared:

    Trans men and women are forced to without disclosure for safety and survival. Forcing us to live in hiding either through stealth aligned gender or truth not living in their truth.

    • The Global Struggle:

    The global attack on transgender and gender nonconforming communities. Normalizing situations where being trans is criminalized sometimes proposing felony charges.

    The 2026 Landscape –

    Survival as a Revolutionary Acting

    The legislative pressure continues across the United States, targeting healthcare, identity, and public life. Economic disparity remains, with trans people facing higher unemployment and poverty rates.

    Mental health outcomes improve with affirming connection, making visibility a survival factor people who are already present across all areas of life.

    Evidence of Resistance – Survival Itself:

    Being a binary-identified transgender man in 2026 means reconstructing masculinity outside inherited systems. Visibility exists across multiple different layers.

    • Professional identity.
    • Creative documentation.
    • Joy outside of struggle.
    • Digital preservation of lived experience..

    We are building continuity, not a momentary presence, but lasting record of real life pressures, progress, and prosperity.

    No One is Free Until We All Are:

    Visibility without safety is incomplete.

    Trans Day of Visibility 2036 is not a celebration endpoint. It is a checkpoint in an ongoing condition.

    Some of us stand in the light because we have no choice if we expect anything to change.

    For Sam Nordquist, though and for all the other victims of unprecedented bigotry and hate. We all unwillingly navigating systems that do not respond. All of you whose risk outweighs the reward when it comes to visibility yet, we are here for you. I will do whatever I can to make a better way for all of you and those still trying to decide whether survival is possible.

    Our goal is not visibility alone, but visibility without fear. Until then, I will carry it, for you and all of the shit they throw at you.

  • Rewind, Repeat, Revisit: My Most Rewatched Series

    Rewind, Repeat, Revisit: My Most Rewatched Series

    Best for:

    Medical drama lovers, scary movie buffs, parody film enthusiasts, and creative writing readers.

    What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?

    Becoming us:

    Some stories don’t just entertain us… they become part of who we are. They anchor us to memories. Others may accompany us through life’s transitions, or offer comfort in their predictability while life is ever changing around us.

    For me, three series have earned the distinction of being watched more than five times each at least: Grey’s Anatomy, Rob Zombie’s Halloween films, and the Scary Movie franchise. Would make up my top three, Degrassi, Wife’s with Knives, The Chucky Series, and Stabbed coming in close runners up.

    One gave me chaos wrapped in scrubs; the others let me bond with the people I love most over slashers and satire. Together, they form a strange but perfect trifecta of my emotional landscape.

    Grey’s Anatomy: The Perfect Amount of Chaos:

    There’s a reason Grey’s Anatomy has endured for nearly two decades. Beyond the complex medical cases and will-they-won’t-they romances, the show mastered something few others have: the perfect amount of chaos.

    • Emotional whiplash as comfort: One moment you’re laughing at a character’s absurd one-liner; the next, you’re sobbing over a patient who didn’t make it. That rapid emotional shift feels chaotic, but for viewers who process emotions in nonlinear ways, it mirrors internal experience rather than disrupting it.
    • Found family in scrubs: The ensemble cast creates a sense of belonging that feels earned through shared trauma. This is something that resonates deeply with anyone who has found their people in unexpected places.
    • Repetition as ritual: Watching Grey’s Anatomy multiple times isn’t about being surprised by plot twists. It’s about returning to a world where emotions are big, people fight and forgive, and somehow, the hospital keeps spinning. There’s comfort in knowing what’s coming while still feeling every beat.

    The research on “comfort viewing” suggests that rewatching familiar series reduces anxiety by providing predictability in an unpredictable world. A 2021 study in Psychology of Popular Media found that rewatching favorite shows serves as a form of emotional regulation. Thus, helping viewers manage stress through narrative familiarity. Grey’s Anatomy, with its high emotional stakes balanced by consistent character dynamics, functions as an ideal comfort text for many viewers.

    Rob Zombie’s Halloween: Slasher Bonding With Mom:

    I know most people view Horror as a solitary genre, but for me, it’s deeply relational. Rob Zombie’s Halloween film, to name one series. Yes, both his 2007 remake and its 2009 sequel are movies I’ve watched countless times, almost always with my mom.

    • A shared language of fear: Watching slasher films together created a bond built on something unexpected: safety in shared adrenaline. There’s intimacy in experiencing fear alongside someone you trust.
    • The brutality of grief: Zombie’s Halloween films are often criticized for their brutality. Though, that brutality mirrors the rawness of loss and trauma. Watching them now, without my mom has become a way to sit with difficult emotions without having to name them directly.
    • More than Michael Myers: Beyond the slasher icon, these films explore family dysfunction, survival, and the origins of violence. All themes that invite deeper conversation long after the credits roll.

    Horror has been studied for its social bonding effects. A 2020 study in Journal of Media Psychology found that shared horror viewing increases cohesion and trust between viewers. Though, particularly when watched in safe, familiar contexts. The adrenaline response, when experienced alongside a trusted companion, can strengthen relational bonds. This further explains why slasher films became a ritual between my mom and me.

    The Scary Movie Franchise – Parody, Friendship, and Growing Up:

    If Grey’s Anatomy gave me emotional chaos and Halloween gave me bonding with my mom. Then the Scary Movie franchise, particularly the early entries with the Wayans brothers, gave me laughter with friends. Although we liked other parodies and road trip themed movies these ones stick out the most.

    • Middle school and high school rituals: Watching Scary Movie with my friends during sleepovers and weekend hangouts became a rite of passage. The humor was ridiculous, the references were often inappropriate, and that was exactly the point.
    • Shorty (and the ensemble): The late, great Marlon Wayans as Shorty Meeks, brought an iconic, unhinged energy that made the parodies land. The franchise’s ability to lampoon horror tropes while still clearly loving the genre made it a perfect bridge between genuine horror fandom and comedy.
    • Shared cultural literacy: Scary Movie gave my friends and I a shared vocabulary. To this day, certain lines or scenes function as inside jokes that instantly transport us back to crowded living rooms, too much junk food, and the kind of laughter that makes your stomach hurt.

    Parody serves an important cultural function. Media scholars note that parody requires deep familiarity with source material, creating an “insider” experience for viewers who recognize the tropes being subverted. Watching parody with peers during adolescence contributes to social bonding and identity formation, as shared humor reinforces group cohesion during formative developmental years.

    Why We Return: The Comfort of Familiar Stories:

    Watching something more than five times isn’t about an inability to find new content. It’s about the stories that become anchors. Grey’s Anatomy offers controlled chaos that mirrors how I experience emotion. Rob Zombie’s Halloween films are a shared ritual with my mom, a way to sit with grief and intensity in a space of mutual trust. The Scary Movie franchise holds the laughter of middle and high school friendships, preserved like snapshots in time.

    Together, these three series represent different parts of my life: the emotional processor, the son, and the friend. They’re not just entertainment. They’re emotional landmarks I return to when I need to remember where I’ve been, who I’ve shared the journey with, and what it felt like along the way.

  • From Pen to Peak: Creative Strategies for Processing Emotions

    From Pen to Peak: Creative Strategies for Processing Emotions

    What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?

    Best for:

    Shadow workers, Emotionally intelligent Individuals, journal readers, and those working through uncomfortable emotions.

    Navigating negative emotions:

    For me whether I’m overcome with grief, stress, or anxiety it requires more than willpower. I have found it helps knowing what works for me. I feel that we should al have intentional strategies that honor the way our minds process the world, to help us find our way back to the light.

    I have two practices that are essential to how I find my light through the bullshit: writing and hiking. One allows me to articulate what I cannot always say aloud; the other offers respite from the constant pressure to perform. Together, they form a sustainable approach to emotional regulation. These are supported by both personal experience and emerging research in psychology and neuroscience.

    Poetry Helps Me Process Feelings When Words Feel Impossible:

    For many, talking about intense emotions, especially grief, advocacy-related trauma, or even love can feel overwhelming or even inaccessible. Poetry offers an alternative pathway.

    • Externalizing emotion: Writing poetry moves feelings from the internal (where they can feel consuming) to the external (where they can be observed, shaped, and understood).
    • Processing in layers: Poetry allows for metaphor and abstraction, making it possible to explore complex emotions without needing to articulate them directly in conversation.
    • Grief, advocacy, love, and more: Whether I’m writing about loss, the weight of advocacy, queer life experiences, or the complexity of love, poetry helps me sit with my feelings. Or I’d be consumed by them. Poetry creates space to process on a deeper level so I can acknowledge emotions when they arise, without feeling trapped by them forever.

    Factual Backing:

    Research supports the idea that expressive writing including poetry, has been shown to reduce rumination and improve emotional regulation. A 2020 study in Frontiers in Psychology found that poetic writing facilitates cognitive reappraisal, helping individuals reframe distressing experiences. Additionally, narrative therapy principles suggest that structuring difficult experiences into written form restores a sense of agency and coherence.

    Hiking as a Strategy for Grief, Stress, and Reconnection

    When I miss my mom, I try to go hiking. The forest becomes a space where grief softens, where I feel close to her without needing to explain or perform. Hiking also offers something I struggle with in daily life: permission to pause.

    • A break from constant productivity: The trail demands nothing but presence. There is no to-do list, no inbox, only the choice to take the next step.
    • “Church in nature“: For me, nature is sacred. It’s where I find stillness, perspective, and a sense of being held by something larger than daily stress.
    • Closer to my mom: Being in the natural world creates space for memory and connection without the pressure to “process” grief in a prescribed way.

    Factual Backing:

    The mental health benefits of time in nature are well-documented. A 2019 study in Scientific Reports found that spending at least 120 minutes per week in nature significantly correlates with better health and psychological well-being. Moreover, ecotherapy research indicates that green spaces reduce cortisol levels, lower stress, and improve mood, particularly for those navigating grief or chronic anxiety.

    Expanding the Toolkit: Emotional Reflection Journals and Creative Writing:

    Beyond poetry and hiking, I’ve built a broader creative practice to help me, and hopefully others, process difficult emotions.

    • Emotional reflection journals: I create guided journals filled with prompts I’ve developed from my own emotional journaling practices. These are designed to help others explore their inner world in a structured, self-led way.
    • Helpful posts on grief, transitioning, and more: I write accessible content that blends personal insight with practical guidance for those navigating life transitions, identity shifts, or loss.
    • Creative short stories: I explore identity, nature, and psychologically thrilling themes through fiction. This allows me to examine complex emotions through character and metaphor. I often aim at revealing the truths that nonfiction alone cannot reach.

    Why This Matters: Creative Practices as Sustainable Coping Strategies:

    These practices share a common thread: they transform overwhelming feelings into something tangible, manageable, and meaningful. Whether through poetry, hiking, journaling, or storytelling, creative strategies offer:

    • A sense of agency over internal experience
    • Safe containment for emotions that feel too big to hold
    • Sustainable processing that doesn’t rely on constant verbal explanation

    For anyone navigating life, finding your own version of these practices, can make the difference between being consumed by feelings and learning to sit with them on your own terms.

    Feedback.

  • Hiking and Mental Health- Why the Trail Quiets my Mind:

    Hiking and Mental Health- Why the Trail Quiets my Mind:

    What do you wish you could do more every day?

    Best for:

    Hiking Enthusiasts, nature lovers, burnt-out creatives, anyone whose brain needs a break, and individuals who find peace in putting one foot in front of the other.

    Axton, Luna, and Kylie at Mohican State Forrest
    Kylie, Luna, & I at Mohican.

    I bet you can’t guess it?

    Who am I kidding it’s obviously hiking. I am willing to bet that even if you’re new here you could have guessed that in under that three tries.

    I’m not aiming to get the best social media reel. I really don’t care to visits the tourist traps in nature. I just wish I could hike every day. Most the time it is the only time my brain shuts the hell up.

    Axton in a blank tank top, backwards black hat? Khaki shorts twerking on a ledge at Nelson’s ledges state park.
    Shake what yo’ momma gave ya.

    The trail doesn’t care about your to-do list, what you wear, or the color of your hair. It cares where you put your foot next and what you take when you leave.

    The Trail Works & The Noise Stops:

    Once I get out there, the constant string of conversation inside my head stops. The loop of everything I forgot, what I did wrong, and everything I should have said in a different way…finally just, fades. For once it isn’t from just ignoring it. I can’t afford to. If you ask me, honestly, none of us can pay that price.

    When you’re picking your way down a slick forrest trail in the rain, if snow is to your shins and a mile feels like ten, or while you are watching for roots under leaves, there’s no room for my racing thoughts. The only thing that matters is the next place my foot is pushed into the ground.

    A pitbull in a blue collar sits on a trail surrounded by fall leaves.
    Luna, my precious!

    My brain treats every thought like an urgent bulletin, and the wild is the only place I don’t have to answer.

    No Explaining Required:

    The woods do not need my pronouns. Water doesn’t wonder about my medical history. Moss on sandstone doesn’t care if I’m too much. Out there, I’m not a transgender man I have nothing to prove to the trees.

    I’m not a publisher, a healthcare worker, or a son who lost his mother too young. When I hit the trailhead I am but just a person with a dog. In the wild i spend my time moving through a world that existed long before me and will exist long after I leave it.

    That kind of quiet? You can’t buy it. There is no chance you can meditate your way there, either. You have to earn it. By every step and every mile, until your shoulders drop from by your ears. The your breath evens out and you remember what it feels like to just be… you.

    The very muddy inclide at Rising Park in Lancaster, Ohio
    Rising park in Lancaster, Ohio, truly does “rise.”

    The woods don’t ask who you are. They do not care; they just let you remember.

    Where the Words Come From:

    About half of my poems arrive on the trail or reflecting on a trail. Not simply in front of a screen, and not only in the garage with smoke curling out of my lungs and toward the ceiling. Mid-climb., at a sun-kissed waterfall, in the middle of the autumn leaf change, standing still while Luna’s ears perk at something I can’t see, or whatever may be the cause.

    The words come fully formed, like they’ve been waiting for me to get focused and quiet enough to hear them.

    I don’t chase them. They just find me. They find me most often when I’m moving slow enough to listen.

    Axton walking in the forest toward lake superior
    Axton walks through the trees towards camp in Munising, Michigan.

    Poetry does not come from staring at l blank paper in a notebook. It come from standing at the edge of something you know is bigger than you are.

    Church Just Make It Sandstone:

    I’m not religious, not even slightly. The trail is the closest I get to going to church. Not the kind with pews and sermons. I mean the kind with 350-million-year-old sandstone. The kind that has hemlock roots teasing you while trying to trip you up. Where winter warm ups inspire soundscapes of water moving slowly under ice.

    Where you can feel the weight of everyone who stepped foot here before you. The Indigenous people who quarried flint from the ridges, settlers cutting timber into logs, and hikers who left heart rocks on benches.

    It should be no surprise if you know me that I find my mom out here. She waits on every trail. Though, I carry her with me and yet she greats me at every trailhead and tree-line. The woods are where I can still converse with her. Still the only place I can still hear her laugh, sometimes. Where I still feel her proud of me for showing up, for pushing through, and for always finding the beauty in places overlooked.

    Red River Gorge, Powell County Ky. If Axton fits he sits.

    The trail is where I find my mom. The woods seem to hold onto the parts of us the rest of the world can’t fathom to grasp.

    The Trail Teaches Me

    There is a lesson in every hike and beauty in every backyard. Try to show up prepared, whatever that looks like for you. Know what is worth the speak, what is pushing it, and when to turn back. Respect the conditions and the natural plants and animals that live in the environment. You are their visitors so be well behaved.

    Practice leave no trace. ALWAYS pack out what you pack in. The weight you carry matters and so does the company you choose. Some trails are hard and worth it. Some are beautiful, but all are for you to enjoy if you’re respectful.

    The trail doesn’t reward ego at all. The trail would rather see presence. It rewards you for paying attention. You can’t bully your way up a mountain, have some humanity. Try and fake your way through a gorge but, the trail knows. Nature will always show you exactly where you need to grow.

    A photo of the Big Spring
    Kitch-Iti-Kippi- Big Spring, Michigan.

    The trail doesn’t care how fast you finish. It only cares that you keep showing up.

    The Best Version of Me:

    I wish I could hike every day, it’s the only time I’m not performing. I am no longer the healthcare worker who has the answers, the publisher who is building something from nothing, the transgender man with something to prove, or even the son who lost his mother too young.

    I am just a person in green and orange croc junipers, with a dog, walking into the tree-line, finding heart rocks, laughing when I slip or fall, or stopping to watch the sunlight change the face of a cliff . It is being present, quiet, and exactly who I am whenever people are watching or not.

    Frozen creek surrounded by snow
    Frozen stream and heavy snow right off trail in Ohio.

    The version of me that hikes is happiest. The version of me, I want to be all the time, by far.

    The Days I Can’t:

    I sadly can’t hike every day. Between work, adult life, and exhaustion. Though I do carry the trail with me when I can’t be on it. The rhythm of putting one foot in front of the other, the knowledge that the mountain doesn’t care how fast you climb, and the certainty that the wilderness will still be there when I can get back.

    That’s what I wish I could do everyday. Perfect days on the trail. The calm peaceful quiet, and the rocks under my shoes. I want more of the version of me that exists when no one’s around to bother me. The peace I find in the spaces that don’t ask me to be anything but present is what I’m looking for.

    Lake Superior View
    White clouds fill the blue skies over Lake Superior.

    I carry the wilderness with me; even when I can’t be with it .

    Before You Go

    If you’ve got a trail that calls to you, a place where your brain finally shuts up, a spot of woods that feels like coming home, and you don’t mind sharing drop it in the comments. I’m always looking for the next place to put my feet.

    If you’ve never found that place yet? Keep looking. It’s out there. Waiting for you to show up.

    Luna The Red-Nosed American Pitbull sitting Pretty at Hayden Falls in Dublin,Ohio
    Luna, sitting pretty on the boardwalk at Hayden Falls in Columbus, Ohio.
  • A Letter to One-Hundred-Year-Old Me

    A Letter to One-Hundred-Year-Old Me

    Write a letter to your 100-year-old self.

    Best for:

    The survivors, the dreamers, the ones building forests in the middle of a desert, advocates, minorities, community needles, and anyone who understands that building a life is an act of defiance.

    The Bones-

    Why We Built Poeaxtry & the Prism

    While I am writing this letter to my future self at 100, I am 34 years old. It is March of 2026. My hands are already permanently stained and altered by the physical work of this life. The leftover remnants of ritual oils, the dust off tumbled stones, a lingering scent of the burnt incense from a pendulum reading, a stone necklace cut to perfection wet saw shearing away at the top layers of my skin, or maybe its the epoxy stuck in my fingerprints.

    Whatever it is I knew the risks when I decided to craft my items by hand. I knew this might leave a few marks on me… permanently. I am writing this to you, the me who is 100. The me 66 years in the future. I need to ensure I remember what it cost to me build Poeaxtry.

    My lifeline:

    It was never just a business. It was a lifeline. I remember the late nights on the longterm care facilities floor, the sheer, crushing exhaustion of working all that doing rounds entails only to turn around and use my downtime there to fight the machine.

    Never ending are the endless loops of learning WordPress, the user friendly yet sometimes glitchy interface of Canva Pro, and the ever present feeling that I was screaming into a void that didn’t want to hear from an a indie queer creator. Especially, one that dare lift up other minorities.

    The hardest thing I ever did was not the work itself, but learning that I was allowed to put the work down.

    Creative Commons

    I knew we would need it all. The community, small creative business, nature exploration, spirituality, and publishing house all had to exist. I needed to create a space where the silenced could breathe and the spoken over could hear their own words for once.

    I hope that by the time you read this, the “Prism” isn’t just a new project, but a landmark of creative minority community. I hope the seeds that I started planting at eleven and got the hang of a few years ago now grew from my thoughtful watering. I did use my own sweat, tears, and sleeplessness to grow this into a creative forest. A community thick enough to protect anyone who walks into it looking for a place to belong.

    My Trans Body:

    Which Maps My Home

    At 34, I am jut shy of eleven years into testosterone therapy. For the first time, I am fully “at home.” That isn’t a small thing; it is a violent, beautiful victory. I want you to remember the fight. By NO means just the physical changes, but the mental endurance required to exist in a world that is obsessed with your anatomy. I have lived in a state of hyper-vigilance, as an armor I wear every single day. This helps me to defend my space, time, and my right to my own words.

    I hope the world is softer for you. I hope you can look at the beard we grew, the lines on our face, the sparkle in our eyes, and the scars of our evolution, and feel nothing but pride. We didn’t just survive the transition; we paved the road for those after us like those before us did for us. We were part of the ones who held the torch when it was dangerous to do so. If you are breathing easier now, it is because I did not stop fighting when the air was thin.

    My Sensory Anchor:

    For When the Trail Eventually Ends

    I know that at 100, the trails might be harder to reach, or perhaps the map will just look different than it does in now in 2026. This is our anchor. When you close your eyes, I need you to take us here:

    • The Cuyahoga Valley Rainfall: Remember the smell of the Cuyahoga Valley during the downpour your first trip to the area? Luna and you were walking through the stream, the winds with the trail, jut trying to beat the heat. The smell is a specific, sacred scent. One I personally feel like I won’t ever forget. Mingling scents from wet stone, ancient earth, moss, freshly tilled dirt, and the sharp stab, of a crisp clean bite of oxygen.
    • The Weight in Your Pocket: Keep the Lake Superior slag glass near you. Feel the cold, sometimes bubble-pitted glass. Look at it shine and shimmer in rays of sun while you move it ever so slightly. Remember how it felt to pull it from the Pictured Rock National Lakeshore’s exposed layers of Earth? You took it all the way home to central Ohio. You planned to clean and polish some while leaving others raw to recognize the natural beauty of something that was once industrial waste.
    • The Ohio Winter: Recall the “deadly sweet” frost of an Ohio winter hiking the gorges and cliffs of Hocking Hills State Park. The way it stings your nose, though your electric heated jacket is pulled tightly. You carry trekking poles in hand and spikes on your shoes to maneuver the frozen Forrest floor underfoot. Somehow world goes quiet still, besides the crunching sound of your steps reverberating inside sandstone ravines.
    • The Waterfall: I know you have to remember the sensory shock of crisp cool water hitting our glasses while hiking near a waterfall, on warmer days. The constant, rhythmic dripping, on my lenses in my view coupled with the welcomed escape from the day’s heat was always a welcome surprise.
    • The Soul Dog: Luna whose eyes were always full of an unfaltering love for me and the trails we grew familiar with over many years spent explaining them together. I know you have to remember the way Luna, our sweet, perfect soul dog, moved through the foliage beside us, always leading our way. These moments with Luna especially hopefully sealed themselves firm like concrete in our memory. Right along with her tail that never stopped wagging especially after she got wind we were going for another hike.

    I hope you still have that jar of stones on your bedside table. Reach out. Let the weight of them remind you that we were a creature of the earth.

    The Shark and the Reef:

    Can We Finally Stop?

    I have been living by the philosophy of the shark. The instinct that if I stop moving, I stop existing. Every poem, every spell, every piece of jewelry, every reading have always been part of the constant motion required to keep the water flowing over my gills.

    But I am tired.

    My heart hurts with the weight of missing Mom, and the creative work. The ritual, the deep dives, the creative burnout from a constant churn of content. Is the only way I learned to process that grief.

    But I have to ask you:

    Did we ever find our “shiver”?

    Did we find a reef, a place where the currents are calm enough that we can just be?

    Oh, how I hope you found out that you didn’t have to be a predator to be a survivor or to be worthy of the ocean blue. I hope you learned how to float.

    The Questions for the Century

    I am leaving you these questions because I need to know that the fire didn’t go out:

    • What accomplishments are you most proud of? Not the metrics, but the moments where you knew you changed a life even if it was yours…
    • Is the community still standing? Is the Prism still refracting the light for those who need to see themselves?
    • What is the dog at your feet like? I hope they have the same soul as Luna and Bubba before her, like in the movie “A Dog’s Purpose.” I hope you’ve spent your life surrounded by that kind of unearned, steady love and loyalty.

    I hope the jar of stones on your bedside table still smells of pine needles and wet dirt whenever you close your eyes and travel back to the woods.

    Tell me…

    I’m curious, what is one “building” phase you are currently in that you want your future self to remember?

    Or, if you’re older, what is a memory from your 30s that still anchors you today?

    Let’s talk in the comments below.

    We are not just the sum of our survival; we are the architects of our own soft, enduring peace.

    A Legacy of Persistence

    A master community builder, poet, and a transgender man who carved out a life from the bedrock of grief and ambition. I am doing the work now so that you can have the peace in the future.

    If you are reading this, know that I fought for every day we have had. I fought for the right to write this, for the right to define my own identity, and for the right to be both the shark and the one at rest.

    Before you leave…

    If this reached you, share it with your friends in private messages or on your social media feeds. We share our stories so that the next person knows they aren’t only in the thick of it. Let’s make the world a little louder, a little softer, and a lot more honest.

    Internal Links:

    Shark Week. Legislative Outlook.

    Ohio House Bill 249.

    A Trans Man’s Memoir.

    External Links:

    Poeaxtry’s Links. Portfolio.

    Discord. Twitch.

    Goodreads.

  • The Shark: An Ultimate Symbol for Queer Resilience and Indie Success

    The Shark: An Ultimate Symbol for Queer Resilience and Indie Success

    Best For:

    Fellow independent creators, minority writers, trans and queer community members, advocates of human-rights, fans of grassroots publishing movements, and anyone who feels like they’re swimming against the current.

    Which animal would you compare yourself to and why?

    The Shark:

    There is a primal, unyielding intelligence in natural bodies of water that I have felt at home with since I was a child. I have also been obsessed with sharks since i was also a small child. Honestly as far back as I can remember I’ve loved both of them .

    While most people project their fears or harmful myths onto sharks, I have always felt a deep, intense connection to the misunderstood water mammals. 

    Whether I am navigating the relentless pace of a small business or carving out space for marginalized voices, the shark isn’t just an animal; it is a blueprint for living authentically in a world that often tries to misinterpret you.

    Survival and Constant Motions:

    For many, the shark is defined by the “obligate ram ventilator” metaphor. While not all sharks must swim to survive, many use a process called buccal pumping to draw water over their gills while resting. Though, those that are obligate ram ventilators, like the Great White or Mako, must keep moving to stay alive.

    Indie Publishing Intersection;

    In the world of indie publishing, there is rarely a safety net. You don’t get to “rest” on past achievements; you are the engine of your own ecosystem. My work is the oxygen here. If I stop creating, the business stops breathing. It’s not just about speed; it’s about the necessity of constant, fluid adaptation.

    Survival & Evolving:

    Sharks have survived for hundreds of millions of years because they evolve with their environment, a lesson I take to heart when facing the shifting, often turbulent waters of the creative industry.

    We are only labeled as predators by the systems that fear our refusal to be erased.

    The Queer & Trans Connection:

    Lately, sharks have become an unofficial symbol of queer and trans joy. Have you see the iconic blue, pink, and white plushie known as Blåhaj. It’s a beautiful reclamation. This phenomenon began circulating on platforms like Tumblr and Twitter around 2018.

    Growth:

    Growing rapidly as a grassroots symbol of trans joy and solidarity. Its status as an internet icon wasn’t planned; it was an organic, community-led movement where the plushie’s color palette became a subtle, affirming nod to the trans flag, cementing its role as a mascot of collective, queer-led celebration.

    Media:

    The Media often paints sharks as mindless, bloodthirsty monsters. This narrative feels painfully similar to how society frequently treats minority individuals. We are “othered,” scrutinized, and labeled as dangerous simply for existing outside the mainstream. Reclaiming the shark isn’t just a comparison; it’s a statement of power. It says: We are an essential part of this ecosystem, and we will not going anywhere.

    Advocacy and Ecosystem Balance:

    Sharks are apex predators, which is a role often misunderstood. They don’t just kill; sharks regulate. By keeping populations in check, they ensure the entire ocean ecosystem remains healthy. Much unlike most of their human counterparts who do not care about the health of those “below them.”

    Publishing & Advocacy:

    As a publisher and advocate, I see my role in the same light. I am one of the guardians of our community. Shark, animal and child advocacy often involves pleading for a someone that cannot speak for themselves. I find my platform to be similar, being that I use my platform to amplify forgotten or spoken over voices. I don’t just publish. I protect the integrity of the stories that traditional houses are too afraid, secretly bigoted, or too shortsighted to allow forward .

    Independence vs. Corporate Sharks:

    In the business world, the term “shark” is often used to describe someone predatory or ruthless. I’m flipping the script on that one also. To me, a “business shark” is about unyielding resolve.

    • Trusting the instinct: Much like a shark sniffing out a trail, I rely on my intuition to find creators or create my own stories that mainstream publishers overlook.
    • Focusing on the heartbeat: While corporations focus on market saturation, I focus on the heartbeat of the community, the soul in speaking your truth, and the mind that goes with being creatively inclined.
    • Strategic precision: I don’t waste energy on what doesn’t serve the communities mission.

    Emotionally Thick-Skinned:

    A shark’s skin is covered in dermal denticles. These are tiny, tooth-like scales that reduce drag and act their natural armor while also cutting down on drag.

    Each denticle is built from the same hard tissue found in teeth, and they overlap like shingles, creating a flexible but protective surface. Their ridged shape channels water into smoother streams as the shark swims, cutting down turbulence and helping the animal move with less effort. This structure allows the skin not only shield the shark from scrapes and parasites but it also boosts efficiency in the water. These provide the shark both protection and speed in a single design.

    Human Evolved Armor:

    In the human world, we have to develop a similar kind of armor. Over years of facing systemic rejection and gatekeeping, we learn that we don’t have the luxury of being “soft” in rooms where our identity or business is constantly scrutinized. This exterior isn’t about being unfeeling. This aligns with protecting the sensitive, vital creative work that lives inside.

    We are not defined by the waters we swim in, but by how we choose to move through them.

    Primal Trust & Hyper-Awareness:

    Sharks possess a “sixth sense” called the Ampullae of Lorenzini. Which is a network of jelly-filled pores that allow them to detect the tiniest electrical impulses in the water. Each of the shark’s pores opens up to the surface through a small pit and connects to a long canal filled with conductive gel.

    The gel, then carries electrical signals to clusters of sensory cells deep in the shark’s head. These cells fire in response to minute voltage changes. Which may be from the faint muscle contractions of a hiding fish, the heartbeat of a buried stingray, a swimmer or seal splashing, and even the Earth’s own magnetic field.

    This system gives sharks an almost supernatural ability to navigate, hunt, and orient themselves in murky or pitch‑black water. This allows the shark to go about reading the world through invisible currents most animals never even perceive.

    Human Bullshit Detector:

    In my professional life, this translates to hyper-vigilance. I have a finely tuned radar for detecting performative allyship and insincerity. It’s a survival mechanism. Because I operate in a field that often tokenizes my existence, I have to be the one to vet who is safe to let into my inner circle. This isn’t a lack of trust; it is the wisdom to recognize who actually aligns with my values.

    What about you?

    We aren’t just swimming; we are hunting for truth in a sea of noise. I want to know how you operate in your own depths:

    • What is one barrier or “gatekeeper” you’ve had to use your own version of dermal denticles to protect yourself from?
    • Tell me about a time you had to keep “swimming” because you knew if you stopped, the project would sink… what kept you moving?
    • We all have a “sixth sense” for insincerity. What is one red flag you’ve learned to detect in this industry that helps you decide who is actually safe to bring into your shiver?

    Finding the Pack:

    While the stereotype is that sharks are solitary loners, many species form social groups called “shivers.” This is exactly the kind of thing I’m building. I’m not looking to blend into a mainstream school of fish.

    In many species, these shivers function as loose social networks where individuals coordinate movement, share hunting grounds, and gain protection simply by being part of a collective presence. Sharks in these groups recognize familiar individuals, form temporary alliances, and even show preferences for certain companions over others. It’s not mindless schooling. The choices are selective, intentional association, and a way of moving through the world with others who match their pace, instincts, and temperament.

    My Sharks:

    I am looking for other “sharks” aka people who share the same drive, different scars enemies the same, and their sharpness a razor’s edge. When we aggregate, we aren’t just surviving; we are creating our impenetrable community that operates on it’s own terms.

    Living on the Fringes:

    Many sharks thrive in the “midnight zone,” a deep, dark part of the ocean where light doesn’t reach and pressure is too extreme for most other living organisms.

    Sharks that inhabit this zone have evolved slow, energy‑efficient metabolisms, bodies reinforced to withstand crushing pressure, and sensory systems tuned to detect movement or electrical signals in total darkness.

    Some species rely on bioluminescence, others on heightened electroreception, allowing them to navigate, hunt, and survive in an environment where almost no other large predators can function.

    Failure isn’t Fringe Worthy:

    For an LGBTQ+ publisher, there is immense pride in operating on the fringes. We live in the places where traditional houses fear to go. We are the ones pushing the boundaries, proving that survival and thriving are both possible in the dark. If society wants to call us “predatory” for reclaiming our narrative, let them. I am only a predator to the systems that try to erase those like me.

    The deepest parts of the ocean aren’t empty; they are full of the only things strong enough to handle the pressure.

    Apex-Predator

    Comparing myself to a shark isn’t about ego, it’s about survival, guardianship, and the quiet power of the deep. Whether it’s the armor of my skin, the precision of my senses, or the necessity of constant motion, I am proud to be a creature of the fringes, protecting my own and refusing to be anything less than what I am.

    Before you swim off:

    If this post resonated with you, please consider sharing it.

    Your share helps our stories of survival, truth, lived experiences, and advocacy deserve to be heard by others who feel like they’re swimming alone.

    If you’re interested in existing in the fringe and joining our shiver you can do so on Discord and Twitch currently.

  • His Granite Skin: A Story of Gender and the Wild

    His Granite Skin: A Story of Gender and the Wild

    Best For:

    LGBT+ individuals and allies, transgender and non–binary nature lovers, seekers of self-discovery, wild souls with wanderlust, advocates who hike, and those who find their spirituality in the wilderness, readers and writers of creative works.

    I didn’t go into the woods to change; I went into the woods to finally stop pretending the mountain wasn’t already inside me.

    This Story is Different-

    Welcome to the fourth short story I’ve release since the first one in January 2026. If you’ve been following my work lately, you know my shorts have been dwelling in the shadows of psychological thrillers. We’ve explored the unsettling “getaway spa” of Anonymous Arron, the chilling future–tense human rights violations of Moist. Crunchy. Purple. Then we looked inside the eerie, “perfected” versions of ourselves promised in Something is Amiss in the Clinic.

    But today, we’re stepping out of the clinics and the underground bunkers. We’re stepping into the open air.

    While my previous stories focused on external systems and authoritarian pressures, this piece is about the internal landscape. We are going to unpack identity differently. Not through poetry for advocacy, self growth, or expression. Not creative writing and definitely not through forced procedure. Here comes your identity via a thru-hike with me visually. Backpacking in the open-air with deliberate creative visual descriptions.

    What are you waiting for?

    Let’s find a good spot to setup tent.

    While you watch the embodiment of transition unfold through these words in nature…

    His Granite Skin

    The air at the trailhead had a few distinct scents that excited my subconscious instantly. I noticed fresh pine first happily mixing with smell of damp earthy soil as I took a few steps into the tree-line.

    I spun around a few times before I figured out which way was which on this hiking app I use. I decided to take to the right after noticing a stream. I could plan to set up camp not too far off it. Before I know anything else nostalgia grabs me by the nose entering memory. A flower smell i know too well. My favorite scent to smell in the wilderness: honeysuckle.

    Feeling like a pre-heated oven right behind a fan, a gust of wind hits me in the face Then takes my breath away.

    The wind wants me to go in my way but I’m still hesitant to claim a space. Waiting for when I know. At barely twenty something, still trying to find my way.

    The trail doesn’t care about the name on my birth certificate; it only cares about the strength of your stride and the honesty of your breath.”

    I swore that I’d pack lightly, I really thought I did. Somehow my pack is heavier than before. The evergreen weight of “she” and “her” cinched tight against my chest. Great. I’m sorry, my binder is tighter than before. Ribs, triple layered nylon, and skin that share a borrowed motel room.

    The first few miles through the summer sun, fluffy clouds, and blue skies were a negotiation inside my mind with identity.

    I walked silently over dirt, root, stone, and path that did not seem to pay any mind or give a care that I was there. The creek beds were dammed up as if to prove the stones had the strength. Holding back the left over spring showers, April and May had brought.

    Moving one stone at a time carefully I allow the water to flow. Not in frantic manner, not to cause swell, but a controlled stream with the clarity to do it carefully.

    The wilderness and myself are becoming something else. Hiking out of the shadow of the woman I was expected to turn into. The world saw the hiker for whom he was. A man navigating identity and survival; to the trees, he was just another heartbeat moving toward the sun with them.

    As the path spiraled into the end of summer the mid-ascent to autumn . The canopy thickened into a cathedral of oranges, reds, and yellows. A few spots of green leaves left behind are scattered about. I hear them saying something is left worth holding onto. The last few unchanged summer leaves make me promise them I will see it through.

    The humidity finally dropped low enough he doesn’t feel like a reptile who started shedding and is now stuck in his wet layer of skin. The other layer provides something new and a means to an authenticity life. As fragments of my skin begin to itch, peel, and change so get ready!

    Excited to see the new changes as they come. Each night, before i start the fire fueled by dried oak, cherry, and maple branches. I wash my face and study my reflection in the stream shifting a small amount daily. I draw out the changes like my topographical map.

    The seasons transition and so do I, mine is just a geologic change. The softness of the jawline seemed to weather away like debris after a heavy rain, revealing the, reliable bedrock beneath.

    There were nights of doubt when the storm changed the trail into a river and my knees burned a fire that no amount of river-chilled water could douse. I camped in the hollows of ancient oaks, listening to the trees breathe, feeling the “she/her” of my past dissolve into the smoke of the campfire.

    The black flies were relentless, a stinging reminder of the skin I was still learning to live in my skin, after shed, but with every mile the distance grew, so did my determination.

    As we gained elevation and the air grew thinner while my spirit grew more dense. The labels, I once felt a necessary like a raft, keeping me afloat, staying afloat. When I used to want more turbulence to explore, currents, and higher mountain peaks all I really was looking for was you. By the time the map reached the autumn ridges, I had found a new rhythm: The Hiker.

    The wind up here was fierce, stripping the air from my lungs and what is left of autumn leaves from almost bare trees. The birches and the high-pitched timber squeaked out from his voice an octave so high he has never heard it before.

    Transitioning is less like a construction project and more like an ancient river… eventually, the water wears away everything that isn’t the truth.

    It happened in the quiet moments between the switchbacks: the way my shoulders squared to meet the my gait, or the way my shadow on the sun-bleached rock actually matches the architecture of my mind. I was no longer “presenting” or performing a role for an audience of strangers in the valley; i was simply existing.

    The first frost arrived one morning, silvering my face. Upon which a fine, dark dusting of hair appeared like lichen on a stone, the natural growth of the wild, on my face. I felt the shift in my chest, a resonance that matched the low thrum of the wind through the canyons. I wasn’t a woman anymore, I never was; I’d clung to it for safety. I am a man, carved out of the distance i have traveled.

    I arrived at the summit and saw a crown of winter white, silent and absolute. Standing at the peak, finally the man I see inside is projected outward. I look back at the valley where we would have been 200 something years ago.

    We all know winter has started. The transformation wasn’t a surgery of the flesh, but a shedding of dead things where new will regrow. I walked until the person the world saw finally caught up to the man who had been walking all along, leaving the old names behind in shallow graves in the topsoil of the lower trails.

    Journey Summary

    This expanded narrative explores the intersections of gender identity and the unyielding nature of the wilderness. It avoids clinical terminology in favor of environmental metaphors: changing leaves, weathered stone, and spring showers to illustrate a deeply personal transition.

    Key Highlights:

    • The Weight of the Pack: Symbolizing the societal expectations of my assigned gender at the start of the journey.
    • The Stream Reflection: A motif showing the subtle, natural sharpening of my features as i climb.
    • The Raft Metaphor: Acknowledging the utility of his past identity, while explaining why it was eventually outgrown for a more authentic self.
    • Geological Permanence: Concluding with the image of “bedrock,” suggesting that his manhood was always the foundation, merely waiting to be uncovered by the hike.

    There is a specific kind of magic found dangling your feet even a few hundred feet in the air.
    When the man you were born to be finally takes the lead.

    External Links

    Portfolio.

    Amazon. Wattpad. Etsy.