My Name Is Scot
Artwork by Luanne Castle
"My Name is Scot examines disability."
Luanne Castle’s art appears in Best of Mad Swirl’s 2023 anthology. Her Pushcart, Best Small Fictions, and Best of the Net-nominated writing has appeared in Copper Nickel, Ekphrastic Review, Dribble Drabble Review, Roi Fainéant, Flash Boulevard, and many other journals.
Twitter/X: @writersitetweet
IG: @catpoems
FB: @luanne.castle
https://www.luannecastle.com/
Twitter/X: @writersitetweet
IG: @catpoems
FB: @luanne.castle
https://www.luannecastle.com/
Soft Curves
Poetry by Jamie Ottewell
6 months ago, I bought a cropped tank top.
Written on it was:
“Fuck what they did to Britney, lady Di & Whitney”.
Lines from Rina Sawayama.
I promised my mother I’d never wear it.
I’d frame it.
It is not that she did not like it, just we are raised
In a place where if I wore it out, I’d attract the wrong attention.
A place where to be a man you have to be like my brother, father, grandfather.
However, although a man, I align more with my mother and her mother.
I would pick female video game characters, as that was the only way to marry the man.
I claim it.
Now, I’m sitting here writing this before I go out on a night out.
Wearing the same crop top I promised to frame.
I secretly brought it to my university city.
Now when I wear it, the men, I would be scared of
touch me, complimenting me on my soft curves, my smooth skin.
And somehow –
That is much worse.
6 months ago, I bought a cropped tank top.
Written on it was:
“Fuck what they did to Britney, lady Di & Whitney”.
Lines from Rina Sawayama.
I promised my mother I’d never wear it.
I’d frame it.
It is not that she did not like it, just we are raised
In a place where if I wore it out, I’d attract the wrong attention.
A place where to be a man you have to be like my brother, father, grandfather.
However, although a man, I align more with my mother and her mother.
I would pick female video game characters, as that was the only way to marry the man.
I claim it.
Now, I’m sitting here writing this before I go out on a night out.
Wearing the same crop top I promised to frame.
I secretly brought it to my university city.
Now when I wear it, the men, I would be scared of
touch me, complimenting me on my soft curves, my smooth skin.
And somehow –
That is much worse.
Jamie Ottewell is a poet from the UK, currently living in Japan. His work has been published in The Abandoned Playground, Streetcake Magazine and Version (9) Magazine. His work explores themes of religion, the working class, and growing up LGBTQ+.
Twitter/X: @jamie_ottewell
Twitter/X: @jamie_ottewell
