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Carson Sandell (they/them)

@csandell.bsky.social
461 followers 486 following 318 posts

Trans Poet | agender | San Diego State MFA | Poetry Reader @ Split Lit Mag| Poetry Editor @ Poetry is Currency| Leftist | Covid conscious |

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Reposted by Carson Sandell (they/them)
The Offing @theoffingmag.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
“I miss that valley heat, the scent of manure and semi-truck diesel, of chlorine and my mother’s pool-wet cheek.” From “Memento Vivere,” a poem, by Carson Sandell (@csandell.bsky.social). theoffingmag.com/poetry/memen...
theoffingmag.com
Memento Vivere - The Offing
Poetry - The Offing Magazine
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
My poem "Memento Vivere" is published in @theoffingmag.bsky.social I'm forever grateful to the editors and readers who advocated and accepted this piece.
The title of the poem "Memento Vivere". Below the title is Carson Sandell and the date 18 Feb 2026. Below that is a photo of Yucca with blue skies and clouds in the background. The picture is attributed to Michael Yantis on Unsplash.I’m most alive those time-stretched mornings
where mayflies drop in death and the dried
swarm smells of wharf-wood, where clouds are
hand-raked and copper hedgerows mirror
the limpness of Mojave sand, a small brown owl
crawls back in the cool burrow, full stomached,
from its beak a two-note coo gusts through
yucca spine, juniper bark, longhorn beetles eat
elderberry leaves in the valley. I miss that valley
heat, the scent of manure and semi-truck diesel,
of chlorine and my mother’s pool-wet cheek.
my neighbor with a shovel scrapes a possum off
the road, iron skips across asphalt, black eyes
like stigmatas, gray-brown fur left in the street,
a ratking of fingers reach out its stomach and like
this underbelly of young death, we long for
our mothers to breathe again, strong as bird lime.
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Reposted by Carson Sandell (they/them)
davidcronenbergscrash @selizabeth.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Transmasc Marvel Girl, the follow-up to my chapbook, Heaven, Ekphrasis, is coming out with @kithbooks.bsky.social this spring!! It's like a sequel that's even more more mad, horny, embodied, speculative, poltical, heartbreaking, and transgender! 🎞️🩸👩‍🍼🏳️‍⚧️🧟👽⛈️👬👭👅🍑💦 #poetry #queer #sci-fi #literature
book announcement graphic for "Transmasc Marvel Girl: Poems" by sterling-elizabeth arcadia, out Spring 2026 with Kith Books. On a Black background in the top right quadrant of the image, a portion of a white linework sketch shows some feathers and the claws of a hawk carrying some red and white entrails. In the middle of the page, in all caps, in red, "Announcing:" and below it, also centered horizontally, in white text, the name of the collection and author, then in gray text "Spring 2026 with Kith Books"
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
I just know transphobic Superman would use his x-ray vision for unseen and unrivaled levels of osteology
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Transitioning is the real life embodiment of an ouroboros
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
The sun and moon are polyamorous and I oh so desperately need to be their third
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
This might go in my manuscript, it might not, either way it was a fun excercise.
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
I haven't posted on here in a long time, here is a draft of my late mother's Facebook timeline channeled through a cento. I hope you like it!
Cento of My Mother’s Facebook Timeline 

my son 		my sweet-
heart 	I am still alive
we 
need to get together
again 	last time	
I saw my son
his son		was playing
my son		was playing
	football
last time		I saw	
my late son	
he ditched me		
	I am having a hard time
right now	my ex-
	husband is getting
married		I am waiting
how are you 	young
lady		I miss you
a lot 	I still wish
you happy 
birthday
my son 		my sweetheart
I wish my days were 
longer
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Thеy say she looks just like her momma bеfore the drugs / She just laughs and says, "I know" (I know), "She really taught me well She's no good at raising children, but she's good at raising Hell" ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
ETHEL CAIN YOU CAN'T KEEP DOING THIS TO MEEEEE
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Here's a little something.
If Grief is Stored in The Bones Then You Are My Marrow

you are the frame my muscles depend on.
my spine depends on the pelvis and skull
like a shovel depends on soil to stand
upright. your home, cinnabar red, 
is my wellspring, is the chant of my body
as cells clash against something my blood
can’t name. my ribs, a birdcage of fingers,
protect my heart, your production
of warmth swaddles it. you don’t want me
to endure the same death. you want 
nothing in return, no apology for sutures
or cortisol my backward birth caused. 
I wasn’t ready to leave you yet. you aren’t
ready to untether from a life you created,
you possessed it and you work overtime
to ensure I live past sixty. mothers can
be laid to rest, but mothers can never rest.
when the shovel beside my grave is laid flat
my decay becomes our decay, your final
death.
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
That sounds so exciting! I'm so happy we are in a similar space!
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
I feel like my first poetry collection is coming together
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
I think I'm ready to shop around my craft essay about lack of punctuation as a technique of transpoetics.
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Black Aperture changed my life
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 01/07/2025
Wrote a short poem, I don't know if it's anything.
A Facebook Friend Wishes My Dead Mother a Happy Birthday

someone believes she is alive. who am I
to deny them that reality? 
what is my role in this web-mess of grief?
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
My ferritin levels went up, this could be caused by a lot of things and all of them are scary. I’m freaked out
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
I got blood done work done this morning because my ferritin levels were abnormally high. I hope the results come back normal because the causes of high ferritin levels are terrifying.
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 10/06/2025
Working on a craft essay about how lack of punctuation in poetry can be a transpoetic technique
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 09/06/2025
Just remembered my mother was bisexual. I'm never going to shut up about this.
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
I’ve got a lot of rejections on my work this week so I’m feeling very very down about my writing
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 19/05/2025
-Yusef Komunyakaa
Chair Gallows

Beating wind with a stick.
Riding herd on the human spirit.

It's how a man slips his head into a noose
& watches the easy weight of gods pull down

on his legs. I hope this is just another lie, 
just another typo in a newspaper headline.

But I know war criminals
live longer than men lost between railroad tracks

& crossroad blues, with twelve strings
two days out of hock.

I've seen in women's eyes 
men who swallow themselves in mirrors.

-memory of Phil Ochs
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 18/05/2025
This is a Marie Howe fan page forever and always
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
The ugly stepsister is such a good movie omg
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
I get my hypochondria from my mother, I wish I wasn’t so paranoid about getting sick
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
I got bit by a spider and had some side effects. I went to the ER and they said everything was fine. That goes hundreds of dollars down the drain that I don’t have. Why am I like this😭
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
I miss my mom so much
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Reposted by Carson Sandell (they/them)
Dr. Bitch @ritamookerjee.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
the trend of ‘explain this to me like I’m five’ is a direct consequence of defunding education. functional illiteracy is a national crisis, one that this administration relies on to maintain power
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
I hope we fumigate this house because we’ve been dealing with bugs for so damn long
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
Anyway if anyone has tips to deal with carpet beetles, it would be much appreciated!
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 06/04/2025
I’ve seen a few carpet beetles in my room the past few days and I swear to god if our house is infested I’m going to lose it.
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Thank you friend, I hope you’ve been well🥺💕
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Thank you so much💕
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Thank you friend🥹💕
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Thank you so much!💕
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Thank you so much💕
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Thank you so much💕
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Thank you so much!💕🥺
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Thank you friend🥺💕
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
Thank you, love🥺💕
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
So tempted to write a poem titled “A Porn Bot Likes a Photo of My Dead Mother”
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Reposted by Carson Sandell (they/them)
ANMLY @anmlymag.bsky.social · 27/03/2025
tell your friends! tell your enemies! join us!
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
I’ll be there🫡 can’t wait to see all these amazing writers💕✨
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
“Without” by Donald Hall might be one of my favorite collections ever
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Prayer
-GALWAY KINNELL

Whatever happens. Whatever 
what is is is what
I want. Only that. But that.
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Ice Storm

-ROBERT HAYDEN

Unable to sleep, or pray, I stand
by the window looking out
at moonstruck trees a December storm
has bowed with ice.

Maple and mountain ash bend 
under its glassy weight,
their cracked branches falling upon 
the frozen snow.

The trees themselves, as in winters past, 
will survive their burdening,
broken thrive. And am I less to You,
my God, than they?
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Trying to Pray

-JAMES WRIGHT

This time, I have left my body behind me, crying 
In its dark thorns.
Still,
There are good things in this world.
It is dusk.
It is the good darkness
of women's hands that touch loaves. 
The spirit ofa tree begins to move.
I touch leaves.
I close my eyes, and think ofwater.
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
Yeats was a lesbian! What do you mean he and his wife George talked to ghosts and then channeled it into his work.
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Carson Sandell (they/them) @csandell.bsky.social · 16/03/2025
New draft!
Memory

shivering, you lay on a bed
the hospital room, gray, 
cold as a scalpel. your body
a network of tubes, pumping
air into your nose, pumping
fluids into your forearm.
I ask the nurse for a blanket.
she returns with a thin square
of cloth. I cover you up
to your neck. with the back
of my hand I wipe away
the sweat from your forehead,
lip, cheek. you start coughing,
I can smell the cigarettes
from this morning. I hold
your hand as you wheeze deep.
I try to keep you alive
as long as I can, your tank
is low on oxygen, the ventilator
pulses slower and slower and
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