weight is the gravitational force that pulls us to the earth, by Remi Recchia

Poetry, chapbook, 16 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

Narrated in just twelve interconnected quatrains, weight is the gravitational force that pulls us to the earth is a chapbook between dreams. The poems find the speaker located in a dreamscape much like our own world but with startling deviations: carpooling to work (with a dragon), going to the dentist (to find diamonds in one’s gum tissue), footwear accessories (bedazzled with larvae). The tone is, in turns, quippy, earnest, and lyric.

It would be easy to say that living between and above and below this sequence of surreality is the “theme” of gender identity, sexual politics, or an eating disorder. But the thing about transness and gendered embodiment—and the ways that others attempt to legislate it—is that it’s so individual. There is not and never has been a monolith of transgender people. There is not one singular trans narrative. There has, however, and there continues to be, an overwhelming clamor against transgender people. The impacts of this violence are real. The impacts of this violence are deadly. weight is the gravitational force that pulls us to the earth is partially written in response to MAGA’s attempted obliteration of individuality, freedom of the press, and, yes, democracy.

The role of the poet in our current political circumstances, as understood by this chapbook, is to keep dreaming, living, and loving. It is to recognize the humanity alive and beating in all of us, especially when such acknowledgement is refused by those in power. weight is the gravitational force that pulls us to the earth offers its readers an alternate perspective on a life worth living shepherded by a speaker “beyond the utterance.”

Remi Recchia is a Lambda Special Prize-winning poet, essayist, and editor from Kalamazoo, Michigan. An eight-time Pushcart Prize nominee, his work has appeared in World Literature Today, Best New Poets 2021, and Prairie Schooner, among others. He is the author of seven books and chapbooks and is the editor of two contemporary poetry anthologies. Remi has received support from institutions such as Tin House, PEN America, and the Poetry Foundation. He holds an MFA in poetry and a PhD in English. Remi will begin his M.Div. at Yale University in Fall 2025.