He Is

Originally published in The 13th Floor Magazine, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Issue Spring 2025

He Is

He is a magician. He is a pair 
of eyes at the end of a threatened tongue. 
His friends say he is strong 
for breathing air that’s not his. 

He doubts his lungs
are laced completely together. 
He holds golden, hidden truths 
in his throat. 
He will forget about them. 

He hates being told he is nothing 
more than something he can’t control. 
Still, his mouth is tied to the mouth he kisses 
is tied to the rock thrown into the pit 
of a bureaucrat’s stomach under granite.

He pukes in the bar’s bathroom
after finishing his 6th gin and tonic 
after making out with a guy he just met.

He is celestial
stripped of his divinity and left naked
on the tiled kitchen floor.
He lies there, painting pictures
in the speckled popcorn ceiling,
dreaming of things he’s seen on the TV.

He isn’t here to change the world because
he isn’t an alchemist. The world doesn’t 
want or need him, another faggot.

Leave a comment

About the author

Bryce Blair is a writer of fiction and poetry whose work explores grief, desire, memory, and the quiet ways queerness reshapes a life. Drawing on Midwestern and mythic landscapes, his writing is attentive to what lingers: unsaid tensions, emotional residue, and the weight of detail. He is interested in how intimacy is built between text and reader, often blending poetic and narrative forms to interrogate identity, class, and belonging. His work has appeared in 13th Floor Magazine, and he lives and writes in Nebraska.

Get updates

Spam-free subscription, we guarantee. This is just a friendly ping when new content is out.