Arya Vishin

STOPLIGHT PARROTFISH SINGS OF FREEDOM

first of all: I change. I
shift. I move. I swim. I
blue. I green. I orange.
I yellow. I pink. I shine. I
sparkle. I shimmer. I destine.
I search. I find. I answer. I
swim. I iridesce. I hover. I
pink yellow orange green blue.
I never red! I never red.
I change. I change. I
change!

GENDERING SKELETONS

listen: imagine we were born in each other’s
bodies. sorry if this manner of thinking is
backwards but you & I get it and that’s
enough for me. imagine that millions of
years in the future they find our
perfectly-preserved amber-trapped thoraxes
and think huh, there must’ve been a mistake.
eastern cultural differences, they’ll guess.
something wrong here—or something
impossibly, unmistakably right. or both.
listen: I have this theory that we were born
from the same rib and that’s why we
understand each other and how we got
mixed up somewhere along the way. put that
pseudo-science in the next medical study to
be torn apart by the new york times, right? I
can take it. we’ve been through worse.
maybe they’ll chalk it up to asianness &
refuse to make sense of our weird bones.
listen: here’s what I think. at the end of the
day, when they bury those thoracic cages, it
doesn’t matter which came from who. if we
loved how we lived I’ll be happy to be dead
& I’ll be happy to have been there with you
no matter what.

Arya Vishin is a mixed Kashmiri-American & Jewish writer from San Jose, California. He is currently studying English & South Asian Studies @ UC Berkeley. He can be found on Twitter @thewodensfang.