1 LOVE IN FRAGMENTS: THE SAPPHIC ISSUE © Honeyfire Literary Magazine, 2021 Editor-in-Chief: Lauren Poole Cover photo from Unsplash Cover design by Lauren Poole Content warnings: sex, nudity, brief mentions of discrimination. 2 Letter from the Editor The idea for this issue came from a conversation with a good friend of mine around Christmas. She was telling me about a new queer film that came out in December, a supposedly ‘feel-good’ festive rom-com which just had to involve conservative parents and a girl in the closet, of course. I can’t say much about the film itself; I didn’t watch it, for that exact reason. Any representation that is done right is a very positive thing, and I don’t mean to take away from that in the slightest. But the fact is that stories about queer people are few and far between, and those that do exist in mainstream media almost always seem to focus on the characters’ queerness as their entire plotline, their only defining feature. While it is incredibly important to start conversations about the struggles that queer people face, particularly sapphic women and nb people, it is equally as important that queer people see ourselves represented as people, as unique, whole individuals, not just as vehicles for stories about homophobia. Queer people deserve to see ourselves being happy, and accepted, and normalised. We deserve to see queer characters who aren’t reduced to their identities. We deserve to see queer characters who are as whole and unique and proud and diverse as we are. When I was about 16 – a very tender age in my queer self-acceptance journey – I first watched a TV show called Person of Interest. In it, there is a badass, unique, adorable wlw couple, but what really struck me about them was that they just were. The people around them treated them normally, there was no potentially triggering homophobia or biphobia directed at them, there was no struggle to accept who they were. They were allowed to just be. For me, seeing that was huge, especially since one of them was bi, like me – I felt seen, and it was a turning point for me in my journey to accepting and embracing my sexuality. Like many sapphics, much of Sappho’s body of work was lost; her story, like these often condensed, simplified queer stories in mainstream media, has never been fully told, and has often been erased or discredited. It’s been told in fragments. It’s for that reason that this issue, containing paintings, poetry, prose, photography and collage art, pieces together a mosaic of queer stories without the usual fixation on suffering, discrimination and coming out. It is, I hope, a bigger picture, a portrait of being sapphic as being whole, being bright, being loved, being proud. Being sapphic as being, without apology, without shame, without constant struggle. As always, thank you to all of you who shared your work with me. Thank you for helping me create a space for our stories. We deserve to tell them in more than fragments, to see more than the sharp edges of our identities represented. I hope this issue is a start. Lauren x 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS and did Sappho? by LuLu Kimmel-Miner – p.6 the temple by Olivia Snowdrop – p.7 assuaging of doubt by Gianna Santucci – p.8 if you were to ask me why I love women by Amber Shaw – p.9 because a girl loved me first by Maddie McGlinchey – p.10 being sapphic by Chloe Erin – p.11 fifteen by Samantha Nimmo – p.12 she by Skyler Saunders – p.13 coffin thoughts by Isabelle Julie – p.14 dawnbreak by Lauren Poole – p.16 sapphic4sapphic by chip – p.17 god is my aesthetic and it scares me by Taj Despotovic – p.18 unafraid by Samantha Nimmo – p.19 dyke by Chloe Erin – p.20 drunk in love by Shan O’Connor – p.22 I want to date a girl by Rachel Hepburn – p.23 the cities we build under bedsheets by Lauren Elizabeth Taylor – p.24 to love a hero is a tragedy unto itself by Susa – p.25 the subliminal us by JM Chadwick – p.26 kiss me by Samantha Nimmo – p.27 a communal love poem by Isabelle Julie – p.28 reaching by Cassie Senn – p.30 you ask me if I love you and I don’t understand by Lydia Palm – p.31 dream girl by Harley Dean – p.32 little wood nymph by Zoe Baber – p.33 viper-soft by Rowan Suthren – p.34 4 john 13 1-17 by Gianna Santucci – p.35 when I say she is everything he was not by Maddie McGlinchey – p.36 lights by Silvana Smith – p.37 I dream of kissing women and it’s easy by Clementine Valerie Black – p.38 benchmark by Katherine Ebbs – p.39 on loving by Caitlin Anne – p.42 soft love by Maddie McGlinchey – p.43 love in a mist by Claire Kroening – p.44 to Sappho by Nadya Syplywczak – p.45 women love women by Rachel Hepburn – p.46 pizza date by Alisha Brown – p.47 loving her is easy by Cassie Senn – p.49 braiding her hair on a Sunday afternoon by Celia – p.50 her muse by Jordan Ingersoll – p.51 heat by Denise Riqué Anrubio – p.52 blackout poem by Diane Lato – p.53 the waves and the sun by Erica J. Kingdom – p.55 imagined connections by Amber Macintyre – p.56 she is always the colour yellow to me by Amber Macintyre – p.57 silent flowers by Celia – p.58 the sun by Chloe Erin – p.59 can we stay like this forever? by Shan O’Connor – p.60 5 AND DID SAPPHO? by LuLu Kimmel-Miner (@luluwrites) 6 THE TEMPLE by Olivia Snowdrop (@oliviasnowdrop) girl wants to date me. girl wants to take me out and show me how to snooker. girl wants to fuck me in the corner of a small town pub and i let her. girl hands me mulled wine and stands real close. girl doesn’t care about my clothes. girl thinks femininity can be whatever. i like girl. she meets me at the train station. she doesn’t care what people think. i think girl is special. baby, aren’t they all? girl wants to catch bowling at ten and kiss my neck at nine. girl isn’t mine. but she could be. she could be. 7 ASSUAGING OF DOUBT Oil on canvas // by Gianna Santucci (@gianna_santucci) 8 IF YOU WERE TO ASK ME WHY I LOVE WOMEN by Amber Shaw (@lastnightapoetsavedmylife) 9 BECAUSE A GIRL LOVED ME FIRST by Maddie McGlinchey (@mgm.poetry) because a girl loved me first i ache for a softness he will never provide, begging boys to hold me gently the way only women ever could. i tangle my hands into the hair of every boy i kiss— trying to find something to hold on to. i write boys into fairytale princes— or maybe i just write them into women; all i know is my heart is always asking for a love that they do not want to give me. 10 BEING SAPPHIC by Chloe Erin (@chloewritespoems) 11 FIFTEEN by Samantha Nimmo (@sn.poetry) Rum soaked kisses Teeth against teeth in drunken smiles Fifteen year old heart stumbling over the edge I dare you They say and now I dare you You whisper with your arms around my waist and I I was never one to back down from a dare The night is so cold but you Your hands are so warm and I Cannot help but focus on the way they feel against my skin Laughter and spinning and stars in your eyes and More kisses but no dares this time Just us And the night And everything I never let myself think feel before now And we say it’s just the drink but We fall asleep holding hands Legs tangled and tucked under warm blankets Hearts giddy and everything everything feels okay now I feel okay now Nothing this beautiful could ever be a sin 12 SHE after / blackout poem of the song by dodie by Skyler Saunders (@smilingatmysandwich) Am I allowed to look at her like that? Could it be wrong when she’s just so nice to look at? And she smells like lemongrass and sleep. She tastes like apple juice and peach. Oh, you would find her in a Polaroid picture and she means everything to me, oh. I’d never tell. No, I’d never say a word. And oh, it aches but it feels oddly good to hurt. And she smells like lemongrass and sleep, she tastes like apple juice and peach. Oh, you would find her in a Polaroid picture and she means everything to me. Oh (Oh, oh). Oh (Oh). Oh (oh, oh). Oh (Oh). And I’ll be okay admiring from afar ’cause even when she’s next to me we could not be more far apart. And she tastes like birthday cake and storytime and fall, but to her, I taste of nothing at all. And she smells like lemongrass and sleep. She tastes like apple juice and peach. Oh, you would find her in a Polaroid picture and she means everything to me. Yes, she means everything to me. She means everything to me. 13 COFFIN THOUGHTS by Isabelle Julie (@poetryfromthelighthouse 14 15 DAWNBREAK by Lauren Poole (@laurenapoetry) 16 SAPPHIC4SAPPHIC by chip (@whentheresteeth) (red thread, your fingers, mine) and hey, what else would be a more perfect metaphor for this than hands ours, tied, not only together, but to the same threads no mirrors for us to look into scared to walk out in the sun too many stares into some girl’s neck or wrists or hands the second time i stay over i take off one flannel only to end up in another when i close my eyes and think of the me that outgrew girlhood by only using other girls’ eyes as pretend mirrors i know i can talk to you about it in the morning i know i can look into your eyes and see myself, right there 17 GOD IS MY AESTHETIC AND IT SCARES ME by Taj Despotovic (@lilac_field_of_poetry) Dear God, up above Please bring my lover down to me.