poetry
Queercoded Villanelle
by anaum sajanlal in Issue Twenty-One, January 2026
Build an altar to memory. Do not forget.
Dot ancestors all over, then kneel down and pray<
to all the joys you do not think possible, yet.
And once you have swallowed the moon of your grief, get
up and run. Leave your eye-silver flowing. Though they
burn altars to memory, we do not forget.
Even when bones bend under strain, keep running. It
has been so long and no time at all since we shaped
creation to be what was not possible yet.
Dear one, they kill us only because we have met
the source of all being, godparent of all pain.
We build altars of memory, do not forget.
Our life’s work: perversion. We understand the depths
of their rules, and we choose to fuck them anyways
in our quest to be what is not possible yet.
You are home, sweet child. Breathe deep of the violet
temple air. Prayer here is whatever you say
at the altars of memory. Do not forget—
we are made of worlds that are not possible yet.
© 2026 anaum sajanlal
anaum sajanlal
Anaum (they/she) is a genderqueer femme lesbian whose work centers queerness, survivorship, colonialism, and resistance. They are a settler on Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee and Mississauga lands, from lands colonially named India and Pakistan. Their work is published or forthcoming in the Hart House Review, BrainScramble Magazine, and League of Canadian Poets’ Poetry Pause. She can be found in Tkaronto surrounded by their abundance of niece and nephew pets, or on Instagram at titus.christ.has.risen.