Three poems by Malcolm Wernestrom

By Malcolm Wernestrom

emperor penguin huddling

i snuggle up with

the soul i’ve known for four years

and the body it flickers in,

radiating warmth from the fire in its belly.

our bodies sink into

the mattress, our limbs tangle

into each other, hidden away

from the frigidity of the world outside.

i feel your breath against my earlobe and

i think i understand how emperor penguins feel

huddled and pressed up against each other’s

warm-blooded feathers in the antarctic cold.

i whisper that thought to you.

you laugh, pulling me closer

a flower blooms where you kiss my head.

divergent

my eyes will search

for the seat with my name on it

in a classroom full of laughter,

only to find it misspelt.

two words tumble out of my mouth and

their faces fix onto me,

a council of ten-year-olds

stamping their sentence:

ATYPICAL

i try to assimilate among

pitying smiles,

joking whispers scrutinising

how i move my hands,

how i chew on my lunch,

how i smile and swallow,

waiting my turn to chisel

into their tight-knit discussions.

i’ll mask from one group to another,

failing to mirror the movement of their lips

and the gait of their legs.

i think i might belong in you

i wonder if your phalanges were built to fit between mine,

if your sclerae were glass blown with pupils finding

home in the brown of my irises,

if your front teeth fell out and grew again

only to knock against mine in a clumsy first kiss,

if your arms were put together to hold me tight

and your fingertips made to brush away my tears.

Malcolm Wernestrom (he/they/she) is a young genderfluid writer of Swedish-Chilean origin, born and raised in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, Canada. He was a 2024 FutureVerser with Poetry in Voice and was shortlisted in 2021 for the Youth Short Story Category of the Amazon Canada First Novel Award. Currently studying to become a social service worker, he enjoys writing about mental health, LGBTQ+ themes, and his boyfriend in his free time. His Instagram is @malkkunn.