Yellow Flower Gills Me Whole: Poems

An exciting new edition/entry to Milkweed’s Multiverse series--a visionary collection of poetry advocating for the excited, the rebellious, and the neuroqueer.

In this momentous debut, Sid Ghosh invites the reader ＂to be so free that it scares you.＂ Leveraging gem-like koans, technicolor wordplay, and earth-shaking wit, he creates startling new worlds in only a handful of words. As a nonspeaking autistic writer with Down syndrome who must navigate immense sensorimotor complexity, his short poems are both muscular and agile, displaying a dexterity replete with vertiginous grace: ＂Spinning I harness / poetry of the Earth. // The Sufi dances / in me to dare me // to scare your loud / soul to ensnare // my fearful mind to / bare some misery / to bear some truth.＂

Ghosh writes beyond his years and from a perspective steeped in queer and fractaled sensibilities. As one who is ＂simply privy to a new road,＂ he renders neurodiverse thought patterns as truly divine. The poems that result bristle with wisdom, divergence, and the ＂generosity of deep rivers.＂ Unprecedented in its genius and composition, this collection of poems is sure to leave readers wide-eyed and breathless.

Sid Ghosh is a levitator of language, meandering through the rivers of Down Syndrome, gilling himself through poetry. He is the author of two chapbooks: Give a Book and Proceedings of the Full Moon Rotary Club. He lives in Portland, Oregon.