2025 Spring Submissions
January 2025
Self-love, care, and appreciation are a deliberate practice that focus one nurtuing one’s physical, emotional, and mental well-being
A Flowing Dream and Dance
Thalia Martin (she/they)
“My poem is inspired by my love of song and dance and the light, love, and clarity it brings to my life.“
I’ve been dancing since I learned what moving on two feet felt like.
It is something life could never take from me
Not for a very long time.
Not until we are once again star dust.
When fear grabs my shoulder,
I hum and begin to sway
in time with my heartbeat
Drifting back to myself, my senses.
I nuzzle into the cheek
of ballroom dancing,
a lover of bygone times
come to embrace me again.
A safe place
where dreams leak into reality
Gliding through a nebula of thoughts
spilling from my mind.
Head cloudy, I follow the light
Into the night,
Dancing with Bowie, Weyes Blood, Raveena.
I don’t wanna lose that feeling—
Still dreaming,
As my voice finds its closure
with shimmering soundscapes and melodies.
Song and dance, God’s word,
softly woven into time,
giving me a future and a hope.
Artist Statement
Hi, name name is Thalia, and I am part of the GEM Collective. I am an artist and SRHR activist living on the traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən speaking peoples. I take inspiration from the amazing people in my life, who have helped me grow into the bad bitch I am today.
April 2025
World Autism Awareness: Focusing on sharing stories and providing opportunities to increase understanding and acceptance of people with autism and fostering worldwide support.
Not the same as before
Georgia Bulgacov (she/her)
A short essay about a personal and paternal perspective on autism.
Sitting at the end of my bed, filled with worry and with the best of intentions, my dad told me I was not the same ever since I got diagnosed with autism. After observing my meltdowns, shutdowns, and my skill regression; after facing my denial to take part in some family activities and having to admit with my issue directly, he said he thought I was letting my disability overpower me. Because I didn’t act or function like before. “You shouldn’t let this happen, honey. You are more than all of this.” He said.
And you know… he was right, at least about the first part. I am not the same as before. I am not as “productive”, or as “socially skilled” as I seemed to be. I am not as tolerant. I try not to keep pushing myself beyond physical limits, but sometimes I still end up unable to leave my bed. But the reasoning behind this change and “regression” is far from what he imagined. In fact, I was surprised he didn’t remember his own worry for me at the time. When I look back at myself from the past, I can’t forget about how I used to live in what I now call an Automatized Ultimate Hyper-Aware Social Survival Mode 5000.
The Automatized Ultimate Hyper-Aware Social Survival Mode 5000 can be compared exactly to what it sounds like: a machine. This amazing product is capable of professional Oscar-worthy acting skills (also known as masking, used to pretend everything is just fine and you’re just like everyone else… even while the teenagers in your class are making loud animal noises and you are so anxious and overwhelmed you just want to explode), hyper awareness of the environment and everyone’s body language and intonation, productivity obsession, and low maintenance. This product is actually incapable of recharging for long. Perfect, right? It just comes at the very low cost of chronic migraines, debilitating anxiety, and inability to attend a full week of its duties.
I remember feeling extremely lost about my own experience of myself while functioning in the Automatized Ultimate Hyper-Aware Social Survival Mode 5000. I was so alienated from my own body I lived between numbness and waves of all consuming emotions. It is still very hard for me to understand my own feelings, but it’s a work in progress. I think the worst part is that I thought it was my fault. I kept trying to find out what was wrong with me my entire life, hoping I could find a way to fix it.
Then, I found out I was autistic, and the world fell from my back. It was not my fault. Even as I write this, tears fall from my eyes because I had felt guilty for so long for not being able to eat like other people, sleep like other people, do things that other people do without such discomfort… and now I know I never did anything wrong, and the more I look back at all of the experiences that never made sense, or the ones that I didn’t really question, the more epiphanies I have and the more I learn about who I am and how to love and take care of myself better.
So I am not a productivity machine anymore. For the external eye, it might seem like I have somehow regressed. But as I explained to my dad on that day, I had to take a few steps back to find who I was without the mask. To find and regulate my body again. To learn to respect it truthfully, and to live like the better version of me, who is not the same as before.
Artist Statement
Georgia is a proud gemlin who can be found crafting random things at the GEM’s library most days of the week, or feeding crows wherever you see them. She can be summoned if you say “octopus” 3 times, but if you just tried and it did not work, she is busy studying philosophy.
If Anything Happens, Remember You are Loved
Thalia Martin (she/they)
Dedication: “To Sam, and to anyone else feeling anxious or down.”
I may not be there to catch you,
but I will be patient
as I watch you pick yourself back up,
because I know how capable you are.
.
There may be days
when I’m too flat on my face
to lend my gentle words—
but event then,
know my hear is true.
.
It is not my job
to bottle your woes,to soothe your growing pains—
but ever if you are thirsty,
know I will help you search for clean water.
.
And if ever we are parted—
by distance, by life—
know that I hold your hand in my heart,
where no squeeze will leave us in
clutches.
.
But if anything happens,
whether it be
small annoyances piling up, or
questions that seem too large or
unanswerable—
remember you are loved.
.
You got this,
.
A trusted loving friend.
Artist Statement
Hi, name name is Thalia, and I am part of the GEM Collective. I am an artist and SRHR activist living on the traditional territories of the Lək̓ʷəŋən speaking peoples. I take inspiration from the amazing people in my life, who have helped me grow into the bad bitch I am today.