“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 - Where Else Can We Go? (2022), PET plastic mirror butterfly cutouts on glass mirror 
Image description:
The photo features a reflective surface leaning against a red backdrop. The upper layer of the surface is transparent, laid over a silver mirror surface; many small, silver butterfly shapes are arranged on this installation.


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, and just femme 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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