Poetry By Julia Bortolussi

      DieselDemon CC




Walking into the night 
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Imagine you walk into a kink club / you feel the night on you / but when you walk in / the hand on your back does not guide you into skin / but into the spoken word / imagine you walk into a kink club / and you forget it is so / regalia on the wall / batons posed like awards and homey photographs / of an inner life, a history / this is the pride of the place / yet you stumble / imagine you walk into a kink club / and don’t want kink at all / at least not the one that makes contact, breaking a visible layer / you needn’t say you’re not up for it / you just want to be / but they nod, yes / you can exist here / feel the waves of connection break the broken bonds inside / think about being with somebody / even chastely / but still they ask: your boundaries, bondage? baby, do you want this new trick i learned? / the first sounds the best / but their grin doesn’t falter / you haven’t even been touched yet / but you feel held / imagine walking into a kink club / and finding what you’ve been denied



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Julia Bortolussi was the founding Head of Design for IntroSPECtion in addition to producing regular contributions. Her work has been published in Serendipity, Messy Misfits Club Zine, All My Relations, and en*gendered, with work forthcoming in Snowflake Magazine and B222 Journal. She is in her fourth year of Creative Writing & Publishing at Sheridan College.