Erin O'daniel is a gender expansive Queer Writing in Duluth (stolen Anishinaabe land), Minnesota

Rockets of Desire

Rockets are a reoccurring theme right now in my life. I wonder…

I spent St Patrick’s Day in Florida, my birth state, with a magical cousin and her sweet, fiery daughter vedaGator. We hunted for leprechauns, ate corn on the cob, and looked for rockets in the sky. Yes, in Florida rockets are a regular occurrence. With both private and public funded ventures, activity above can make for an excitable and noteworthy day.

I also think of rockets in other contexts. First introduced to the term “rockets of desire” years ago in my meditation group, I use the phrase to ground my pleasure practice. I notice, reclaim, and draw daily how desire feels in my body- by playing with flirty intrigue, queering intimacy, and engaging ‘the erotic as power’.

In addition, my current favorite collection of poetry is Rocket Fantastic by Gabrielle Calvocoressi. Highly recommend Gabrielle’s royal rockety queerness. Calvocoressi brilliantly uses the segno symbol as a pronoun throughout the book of poems, “representing a confluence of genders in varying degrees, not either/or nor necessarily both in equal measure. It is simultaneously encompassing and fluctuating, pronounced by me with the intake of breath when a body is unlimited in its possibilities.” Rockets of Desire defined on the page- and queerly expanded as well.

Finally, a love of mine is building “a spaceship loom, just about ready for take off” that’s as full of risky creative rocket-esque desire and rockety fantasticness as possible. I can already taste the queer deliciousness of their launch from hours away.

So here’s to noticing spring Rockets of Desire. And how our solo, spacious dreams support the work we do for collective liberation. Yes to lighting ourselves and each other up and inside out from all directions.

Spring unSettles

Sex as Sliver