Chris Tse



Submission to Cordite 113: NO THEME

We’re looking for poems that show poise and polish while aspiring to be both sonorous and audacious.

Posted in GUNCOTTON | Tagged ,

Queerbaiting: The Musical

fellas, is it gay to queerbait? is it sleight of hand calling attention to unspoken fires in each breath? where there is space for quiet ache, the yearn you keep to yourself until you find a trusted friend. gay gaze …

Posted in 111: BABY | Tagged

What Blooms Beneath a Blood-Red Sky: A Year in Aotearoa Poetry

Poetry is booming in Aotearoa, and nobody can quite say why. What’s stirring our blood in the plague years / this sixth mass extinction / our deteriorating climate of political and literal atmospheres?

Posted in ESSAYS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

X / O / X

          “You never gain weight from a doughnut hole.”                          – Tori Amos the smaller the hole, the sharper the whistle / paperclip in power socket / needle eye glowing in the dark / tonight X is no name / X is …

Posted in 108: DEDICATION | Tagged

Female impersonator holding long gloves

(after Diane Arbus) as for loops we return only when the cymbal crash decays into memory then once more a young man fills the room making it his center for erasure—rebirth—disguise be it entering under layers of borrowed silk or …

Posted in 88: TRANSQUEER | Tagged

Belated Backstory

There were animals. They came to me with their bloodstained murmurs choking the night, the weight of misery a gloom in their throats. Beasts of all shapes and mythologies scratching at the soil around my grave, each one driven by …

Posted in 69: TRANSTASMAN | Tagged