teddy mills

Category: POETRY

  • gender is a poem

    gender is a poem

    A collaboration between me and participants during the Queertawe exhibition at Volcano Theatre Swansea, July 2025.

    gender is a housefire
    gender is a mess
    gender is the unexamined empty space
    gender is afraid
    gender is the most-cited author
    gender is the thing
    gender is the hip new thing
    gender is enough
    gender is a tickbox exercise
    gender is mandated
    gender is created
    gender is flotsam
    gender is the peeling sticker
    gender is the drawer you don’t wanna open
    gender is out of control
    gender is a plaything
    gender is the only thing worth talking about
    gender is domesticated
    gender is dead
    gender is a subscription service
    gender is this quarter’s KPI
    gender is fearfully and wonderfully made
    gender is quiet here
    gender is quantum
    gender is mine all mine
    gender is pot-bound
    gender is leaking from my pores
    gender is gonna fix everything
    gender is behind us
    gender is just ahead

    gender is only the beginning
    gender is mine to explore
    gender is only temporary
    gender is self-defined
    gender is making me look for the exits
    gender is what you make it
    gender is loving yourself
    gender is everything I want it to be
    gender is a work in progress
    gender is a charcuterie board
    gender is a cup of tea with optional sugar
    gender is oops the paint dripped
    gender is be bold
    gender™ is fucked
    gender is fluid
    gender is unique to each person
    gender is [child’s illegible handwriting]
    gender is beautiful
    gender is a reminder
    gender is busting out all over
    gender is not what you are
    gender is quite often decided for me
    gender is cool
    gender is suffocating!
    gender is flipping coin
    gender is infinite ♾️
    gender is existing in the chaos between order
    gender is chaotic + beautiful
    gender is like the sea + fluid & beautiful
    gender is very confusion
    gender is whatever I want it to be
    gender is a game I don’t want to play
    gender is squirrels
    gender is none of your business
    gender is meh? boring!
    gender is better when you’re a poof
    gender is AAAAAA
    gender is unlimited
    gender is just the thing
    gender is a social construct
    gender is a tool of oppression but also a description of love
    gender is defining & not defining at the same time

    @poetry.is.ted

  • When I came out to my family in that Airbnb in Rome

    shortlisted for the Poetry Wales Award 2024-25

    A ghost lodged itself in that hollow place behind

    my collarbone. I turned counsellor in my sister’s grief,

    soaked up her wine-slick tears as I assured her that I was sane,

    that I’d be the same, that I wouldn’t change, not really.

    (I was a small thing then and didn’t know how I would grow

    around the ghost). Just bowed my head and held them all.

    My sisters and our mother asked their questions and we laughed

    around the new sounds unconvincing: son, brother.

    My stepdad sat still in the corner. After, I smuggled my shade

    on the plane back home then tried to find a place to put her. I

    looked in all the drawers for space but they overflowed

    with cups and plates, the Christmas tree, prom dresses,

    make believe. I combed through my journals for an empty page

    but they all blurred before me. I went into the garden

    to see if I could find a pot to put this seed in, but everything

    was frozen shut. I was frozen shut. There was a cold ghost inside

    me and a burning. I had never carried a ghost before and

    I didn’t know what I should do. I was prepared for pain but not

    for this. I didn’t know I would get a ghost. I went to bed and we curled

    around each other like parentheses: the new me and the old me /

    the same me and the changed me / the beginning and the end