Italo Ferrante (self-describe) is a gender-queer poet who earned a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Warwick. To date, Italo's work has been selected for publication by Poetry Salzburg, bath magg, Cardiff Review, BODY, Lighthouse, Impossible Archetype, Ink Sweat and Tears, and Stone of Madness.

Easy read of the poems in the images above:

[At the top of the page, above the poem and title, is a photograph of a camera showing a black-clothed individual resting against the railing of an external staircase.]

CHOOSE A TITLE FOR THE ABOVE PICTURE

CW: suicidal ideation, ED, and sexual abuse

a. My sleep is restless / my sleep is poor / I can’t sleep
b. I suffer from it all / my depression visits at 4.48 / tension comes in the a.m. / anxiety spills from the fridge / stress is how my skin breathes
c. Assess my hopelessness
d. Ask me about my history of solicited sexual abuse
e. Ask me about my history of mental weakness
f. I asked for my traumas
g. Rate my suicidal ideation
h. Low acuity or moderate acuity or high acuity?
i. I move so slowly that people think I’m a dummy
j. I speak so softly that people think I’m a creep
k. I have the thoughts but I probably will not do anything about them
l. I I have the thoughts and I don’t see myself alive ten years from now
m. I have the thoughts but I will try to maintain control by skipping an even number of meals every day
n. I have the thoughts even if no one believes me when I say that time doesn’t make sense to me unless someone reminds me it’s Monday morning and I’ve got to take a shower or it’s the third month and I need to pay rent or it’s Sunday and no trains are going into town
o. I don’t need to go anywhere no one needs me anyway
p. I’m easy to ghost
q. I’ve haunted myself for twenty-five years

[At the top of the page, above the poem and title, is a photograph of a camera showing a black-clothed individual falling down the steps of an external staircase.]

I fell because…

CW: suicide, homophobia EDs

- I weighed less when I lay down
- I haven’t eaten anything solid for two days
- I felt ineffective as a person
- SHOUT
- Big Boy James Ashworth told me to bow down
- Big Boy James Ashworth dared me to kiss the ground
- Big Boy James Ashworth called me a bloody dog
- Big Boy James Ashworth told me to look for help
- text SHOUT
- I’m a dirty diseased homosexual
- I’m a waste of human tissue
- I’m a walking sphincter
- I’m a tumor
- text SHOUT to 85258
- I think I’m finally feeling myself
- I feel attractive and I’m not sad anymore
- I promise that people will stop wondering if I’m sick
- Help is available - text SHOUT to 85258
- I’m sorry Mum for making you cry that day you came to pick me up at the airport
- I’m sorry Mum for making you worry about my liver and my blood sugar and my immune system and my gut and my eyesight and my happiness
- I’m sorry Mum for making you bin the meals you took hours to prepare
- I’m sorry