Toilet lid popping under my fat 12-year-old frame, I pretend I’m a tree, so I can escape the rending sensations of dusty blow-dryer air, hot, whirring man-sized mosquito to lance ear-
-drum, skin blistering where nipped by Dollar Tree GHD. Its clacking, clamping, pulling jaw shuts tight as mine while my mother says, “one day you’ll love doing your hair and look back on this as a funny memory”.
Maxwell O’Toole compulsively creates. A disabled and trans writer/artist, he is particularly inspired by his activist work, using art to connect with himself, others, and our world. He has pieces with over a dozen publications, including UNESCO Chair, Chartium, ANMLY, FreeFall Magazine, Vellichor Literary, and Poets.ca. Maxwell lives with his partner and their cats in St. Catharines, Ontario, traditional territory of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples. For more information, visit @maxwellwriteswell on Instagram or maxwellwriteswell.ca.
