Two Poems by John Lowther

I’m on a dangerous adventure to clean the blades myself.
Those who have it would be devastated if it were cut off.
I guess love is the best reason to make a stupid mistake.
No, it says Volvo or Vulva, anyway something like that.
She doesn’t look like she is enjoying herself very much.
It is certainly true that that is when accidents happen.
That’s what you call a misdemeanor homicide.
Look out honey cause I’m using technology.
Knives are for pros.
The question of sex will take care of itself.

Photography © Steve Warren

Respect existence or expect resistance.
Push this button in case anything happens.
Personally I think this world is crazy.
Sometimes things can’t be explained and that’s ok.
Never chase love, affection, or attention.
No, we punch back by refusing to shut up.
An eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Cyberbullying goes largely unpunished.
This is dangerous for the animal’s health.
In order to believe the opposite of the obvious truth, you must have some
emotional need to hold that belief.

John Lowther’s work appears in The Lattice Inside and Another South and Held to the Letter (with Dana Lisa Young) is forthcoming. He works in video, photography, paint and performance. His dissertation-in-progress tries to reimagine psychoanalysis with intersex and transgender lives as pointers toward our ever-expanding subjective potential. The work above is an excerpt from 555, “a collection of sonnets whose construction is database-driven and relies on text analytic software.”

Steve Warren’s interests are in the healing arts, poetry, photography, dance, the nutritional arts and much more. He is a peer specialist in the recovery movement.