“Spotify Playlist” and Other Poems
By Winter A. Chen
Marla Bendini - What is painting but the act of embracing by means of art the surface of the pool? No. 2 (2022), Oil & oil pastel on linen
Image description: The painting features a nude, female figure floating horizontally across a purple surface, her arms stretched out next to her head, which is almost entirely obscured under dark brown hair. She grips a mobile phone in her left hand, on which there is a charging battery symbol. Her body is partly under the purple, fluid surface, which is speckled with glowing spots.
SPOTIFY PLAYLIST
MADE FOR YOU
We made you a personalised playlist please listen to it please please we worked so hard on it to please you please say you like it or not it’s ok
🌐 1h 23m
OMG
NewJeans
A
RAINBOW
SHOOTING STAR
XG
we fell in love in October
girl in red
Me and My Husband
MITSKI
COME BACK HOME
2NE1
Every Summertime
NIKI
Dancing On My Own
Robyn
On The Floor
Perfume Genius
It’s Okay To Cry
SOPHIE
Cry for You
September
No Blueberries
DPR IAN
PURE/HONEY
Beyoncé
Hold The Girl
Rina Sawayama
THAT GIRL
Bree Runway
Future Starts Now
Kim Petras
trust (feat. RINI)
thuy, RINI
The Weekend
88rising, BIBI
ANGOSTURA
keshi
Don’t Delete The Kisses
Wolf Alice
촉촉
PPCX, Yozoh
To Myself
DPR LIVE
BYE BYE
Red Velvet
Marla Bendini - What is painting but the act of embracing by means of art the surface of the pool? No. 2 (2022), Oil & oil pastel on linen
Image description: The painting features a nude, female figure floating horizontally across a purple surface, her arms stretched out next to her head, which is almost entirely obscured under dark brown hair. She grips a mobile phone in her left hand, on which there is a charging battery symbol. Her body is partly under the purple, fluid surface, which is speckled with glowing spots.
SWIPE LEFT/RIGHT
Name?
book-bird-clock
Work?
£@ !± @# @@@ %@
Gender?
sordid / lust / gas / plasma
Height?
apostrophe preposition verbiage
Location?
(91, 206, 250)
Pets?
phlegmfrost & limescale
Children?
la cuna
Family Plans?
let’s play a game of two lies one truth nobody can waterboard out of you
Covid Vaccine?
insert_video_of_a_man_in_a_train_towards_Clapham.mp4
Education Level?
seals spin saucers symmetric symbols slush succubus Selfridges symposium
Smoking?
Cloudy condiments will continue for the rest of the day. Wind guests are up to 42 km/h.
Marijuana?
H: 14° L: 11°
Drinking?
where does a body begin & a feeling end?
Drugs?
stay in the middle \ like you a little \ don’t want no riddle
Politics?
five stars on a map make a circle called violence
Zodiac Sign?
christian horsegirl pop; duplexes; blood moon apogee; vitamin D tablets; sniffing coyotes
Marla Bendini - Transboundary Homecoming (2023), Mixed media collage on canvas
Image description: A notebook cover with frayed edges is depicted against a light-purple background. The notebook looks like a typical brown composition book, with the words “Name,” “Subject,” and “Class” scrawled in child-like handwriting on the bottom. Above these words, a red rectangle is painted, resembling the front of a booklet. Thick, messy yellow brushstrokes vaguely spell out “Republic of Singapore,” and “Passport” against this red backdrop. To the right, placed on top of the notebook cover is a gilded butterfly shape.
BIOMETRIC RESIDENCE PERMIT
NAME
THE GODDESS
VALID UNTIL
THE LAST GRAIN OF TIME HAS BECOME THE SHADOW OF A BODY
PLACE AND DATE OF ISSUE
THE LAND OF COLONISERS
NOT BUILT FOR ANY SEASON
01-01-XXXX
TYPE OF PERMIT
DECISION TO LEAVE
WAS SNUBBED
REMARKS
DON’T DREAM
OF LABOUR
PLACE AND DATE OF BIRTH
A CITY THAT PRONOUNCES
ITS “TH” SOUNDS AS “D”
aries sun / cancer moon / sagittarius rising
SEX
not real ly in the mood
most of the time
NATIONALITY
the state of
ga(rden)s
wa(te)r
death penalty
REMARKS
NO PUBLIC FUNDS
BLOOD TEST
Patient Number: L000919496
Image description: Blood Test. Patient Number: L000919496. This is followed by a table of hormones and their categorising features. The hormones are: Oestradiol, Prolactin, Testosterone, Periwinkle, Singapore, Stratford, Chemical X. Their features are Arcana, Units, Colour, Origin, and “See Also”.
The full text is:
OESTRADIOL. Arcana: The Empress. Units: 165 sonnets. Color: F7A8B8. Origin: oh to be reincarnated as a slime. See also: pumpkin seeds.
PROLACTIN. Arcana: Three of Cups. Units: ANTIFRAGILE by LE SSERAFIM. Color: FFFFFF. Origin: comet’s carapace. See also: snowskin mooncakes.
TESTOSTERONE. Arcana: Joker. Units: a thousand ducks. Colour: 55CDFC. Origin: dreams in ashes. See also: fireside prayer to pineapple on pizza.
PERIWINKLE. Arcana: Temperance. Units: wishbone. Colour: 6667AB. Origin: what is a phlebotomist but a pathfinder? See also: crushed velvet.
SINGAPORE. Arcana: UNO Reverse. Units: 3 chthonic keys. Colour: Twitter. Origin: three words in a trenchcoat. See also: will-o-wisp.
STRATFORD. Arcana: King of Diamonds. Units: copyright TELFAR. Colour: 18-1750. Origin: the year of the bag. See also: hugs & kisses.
CHEMICAL X. Arcana: Old Maid. Units: If we had all the love in the world, would we have grown up to become soup? Colour: lapis lazuli. Origin: N/A. See also: wound of a river.
Winter A. Chen is a poet, performer, and artist based in London. She holds a MA in Poetic Practice from Royal Holloway, University of London. She was a '22 Lambda Literary Poetry Fellow. Her works have appeared in Stellium, Strange Horizons, EnbyLife, beestung, justfemme, and dandy amongst others.
*
Marla Bendini (she/they) is a cross-disciplinary trans, non-binary artist working in painting, text, sound and performance that centres personal histories to talk about love, grief, relationships, queerness and more importantly, growth and recovery. She believes our storytelling is important and the transformative power of introspection in art-making and experience can precipitate constructive individual and social change.
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What do dating apps, border control, and HRT documentation have in common? Find out in Winter Chen’s explosive movement between the forms and functions that draw a life’s rawest borders.