Hymn #3 (Queen HRT)

The gray basilica lodges in my throat. Ma®y untie me.
Saying the words as an 8 year old to mean them.
untie me untie me.
The sky the money the azaleas all make gruel out of me.

Gold in the trough feeds the malefactor of all burdens.
The hay the hay the hay stuffed god induction in the face of the wild mare.
My god my god my god let me not strike my body down in the child.
My god my god untie me untie me.

Ma®y you would not harm your daughter lodged in your mouth.
Ma®y Ma®y you watched over me when I slept and did nothing.
The saints played euchre and I loved you and yet you did nothing.
I put on my own chains and I love you.

Anya Johanna DeNiro is a trans woman and writer living in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

She grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, and received a BA in English from the College of Wooster and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia. Her novella City of a Thousand Feelings was published by Aqueduct Press in 2020 and was on the Honor Roll for the Otherwise Award. Her novel OKPsyche is forthcoming from Small Beer Press in September 2023. Her short fiction has appeared in many venues, including One Story, Catapult, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, Santa Monica Review, DIAGRAM, and elsewhere. Her work has been a finalist for the Crawford Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award, and longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award.