When you come back, my heart unstones itself. My veins do what veins do. My body behaves like a body. These legs quit their spasm and cry; I become something soft and leaking. When you come back, you change the way the light fits into the apartment. I have this urge to plant, touch seed. […]
Natalie E. Illum
Natalie E. Illum is a poet, disability activist, and singer living in Washington, DC. She is a recipient of a 2018 and 2019 Artist Fellowship from the DC Commission of the Arts and Humanities as well as a previous Jenny McKean Moore Poetry Fellow. She is a nonfiction editor for the Deaf Poets Society. She was a founded board member of mothertongue, a women's open mic that lasted fifteen years. Natalie competed on the National Poetry Slam circuit for several years and was the 2013 Beltway Grand Slam Champion. She has been published in various journals and on NPR's Snap Judgment. Natalie loves Joni Mitchell, whiskey, and giraffes.