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laeastra.com
lae astra
@laeastra.com
410 followers 180 following 170 posts
レイ🌌 artist & writer in tokyo. narrator, singer, voice actor. vegan🌱 jp-en localization

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最終日に見れてよかったです！ありがとうございます😊 thank you for sharing your amazing artwork, looking forward to seeing it again!
colorful art prints of nonhuman beings and plants on a wall by artist watanabe takao two people who visited artist watanabe takao’s exhibition in harajuku, with the artist in the middle giving a thumbs up
November 3, 2025 at 3:26 AM
laeastra.com
This World Is Not Yours by @kashinggiwa.bsky.social in the SFF section at Kinokuniya Shinjuku bookstore! Happy to see it here in Tokyo <3
holding This World is Not Yours in front of shelves of SFF books in Tokyo
May 7, 2025 at 2:12 PM
laeastra.com
東京の桜
#bloomscrolling
photograph of the view looking down the middle of a small street lined with very pale pink cherry blossom trees in tokyo, the street is clear of vehicles except in the distance
April 1, 2025 at 5:25 PM
laeastra.com
Cooked some veggie soup with potato and white beans
#veganfood
photo of a warm, sunlit bowl of vegetable soup on a wood table
April 1, 2025 at 9:14 AM
laeastra.com
Hi, here’s me as Xiang from @kashinggiwa.bsky.social’s book, The Splinter in the Sky!
an asian agender trans guy cosplaying the character Xiang from the book The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa Xiang cosplay, glasses & grin version for fun
February 25, 2025 at 1:26 PM
laeastra.com
“Starfire Songs” - a piece for The Account, from earlier this year.

theaccountmagazine.com/article/astr...
November 11, 2024 at 7:18 AM
laeastra.com
I really enjoyed diving into the universe of The Splinter in the Sky by @kashinggiwa.bsky.social ! Wonderful characters, beautiful writing, queerness as an inherent part of society, plant-based food, lots of tea 💚 thank you for sharing your stories with the world, Kemi! I can’t wait to read more. :)
Hardcover copy of the book The Splinter in the Sky by Kemi Ashing-Giwa held in a hand, indoors in warm morning light title page inside The Splinter in the Sky, signed by the author, “Dear Lae, I hope you enjoy this book! -Kemi”
February 15, 2024 at 6:52 AM
laeastra.com
My speculative poem "Binary Star System" is in the Nov 27 issue of @strangehorizons.bsky.social, alongside a painting that I made for the piece. Thanks again to editor @ajodasso.bsky.social & Strange Horizons for all their wonderful work! 🌌 @sfpoetry.bsky.social

strangehorizons.com/poetry/binar...
screenshot of Strange Horizons website displaying a painting with black background, hand-drawn thin white spirals resembling orbit lines expanding outward, and an indistinct winged being with multi-colored fringes of light around them, flying away from the center
December 7, 2023 at 6:42 AM
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My poem "at shibuya crossing" is out in @underscoremag.bsky.social! Thank you so much eic Erica Leslie for creating this wonderful magazine about things underscoring city life! Grateful to share this snippet of a place in my home city that I traverse so often: www.underscoremag.com/issues/issue...
photograph taken by lae astra of a human wearing black with headphones on, facing shibuya crossing at sunset with vivid pink and blue hues washing across the sky over the neon lights of the buildings taking up most of the landscape.
November 16, 2023 at 1:03 PM
laeastra.com
just arrived in tokyo this morning! i’m honored for my words to share space with the many wonderful queer writers in this anth, thank you @fifthwheelpress.bsky.social @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social 🌈
hand holding a book with light blue and purple cover and the words FWP 2023, an anthology of queer writing, in morning sunlight with monstera leaves behind it a page inside the book showing an excerpt of a poem: Neon Heartbreak lae astra This morning, I wake up heavy under the pieces of a neon heart. How inconvenient. I shake them off me and go to work, but there they still are when I get home. A glowing pile in the corner, all sharp teeth and leaking color, mixing into warped rainbows. "Not on my floor," I tell it sternly. "I'm a millennial. I'm renting and can't afford to fix the damage." The broken heart leaks harder.
November 9, 2023 at 2:35 AM
laeastra.com
still amazed to have received payment for my poems. i’m using that paypal balance to buy other writers’ books. i’m in japan & intnl shipping can be difficult, so i really appreciate when publisher sites offer ebooks & i can support them directly :) @deepvellum.bsky.social @earthtokb.bsky.social
cover of Freedom House, poems by KB Brookins, in ebook format on a tablet with a hand holding it steady
November 8, 2023 at 1:10 PM
laeastra.com
i’m honored to have a poem in ANMLY #37! you can also listen to my reading of it here.

anmly.org/ap37/lae-ast...

can’t wait to take my time reading through this whole issue, thank you @anmlymag.bsky.social !!
lae astra MELTDOWN AT HIGH TIDE Anomalous Press - lae astra ... I SOUNDCLOUD I pour night blooming jasmine petals into the craters of my body. Swarms of invertebrates peek out from tidepools, like swirls of dust rippling moonlight. The tide climbs
November 1, 2023 at 12:18 PM
laeastra.com
Tokyo.
Voices across languages and borders rang out this evening,

“From the river to the sea / Palestine will be free”
People from different countries gathered in front of a Tokyo skyscraper, holding signs. In the center is a sign of the Palestinian flag with the words Free Palestine in the middle of it.
October 18, 2023 at 3:38 PM
laeastra.com
This is so lovely 🔥
by @justinaoba.bsky.social in @bswszine.bsky.social
in this beam of light I only want to continue Justin Aoba & crowd around myself slick with rain & listen to bells stolen by empty churches & meet a stranger's hands in damp earth & splash across words & white noise & cold bread eaten under thoughts suspended & when the light of ligature thins may I rise & cloud the ashen earth & maybe if there is still time let me surprise the sky & sluice the caverns of enunciation & just give me a little more time please to pretend that out there in the hail of punctuating comet tails there are still two celestial bodies: you & me Justin Aoba is watching shadows lengthen across the wall.
October 6, 2023 at 9:09 AM
laeastra.com
Honored to have my poem "Evidence of Emotion" in Issue 17 of @feralpoetryandart.bsky.social alongside beautiful artwork by @nocturnical.bsky.social !

Thank you to @bethgordonpoet.bsky.social, Narmadhaa, @judemarr.bsky.social, @amandamwrites.bsky.social.

feralpoetry.net/evidence-of-...
Evidence of Emotion says the human news after noticing an orca who swims 1000 miles carrying her child, dead shortly after birth, under watch by orca community who share the weight through wave after wave of mourning. The salmon they eat are endangered. Meanwhile, the humans continue fishing. The day that a nine year relationship ends, the expression I wear is a rough stone face tossed smooth by ocean. With nothing left to revive, I swim through four years, slowly gathering new family as my mask erodes. Tonight, I wipe tears that the propagated monstera drips onto the living room floor. Leaves outstretched like hands fishing in the dark for the quiet memory, floating between dust motes, of light carried on the back of another morning.
October 4, 2023 at 1:10 PM
laeastra.com
As someone who is very fond of birds, I am delighted to have my poem “spacebird music” in Issue 5: Birdsong of tiny wren lit, the first litmag I ever submitted to.

Thank you to EIC Dana Knott!
Go read the lovely tiny feathered poems in this issue :)

www.tinywrenlit.com/issue-5
spacebird music lae astra crackles from a passing ship wakes the pilot from dreams of bird- watching on Earth. later, their child listens to a recording and asks, what are birds? they were artists, the pilot says, winged ones who shared my old home.
October 2, 2023 at 9:07 AM
laeastra.com
saw my gender on the yamanote line the other day 🍂

(actually this was a month ago but I didn’t know where to share it)
Photography of a video game ad poster on the train in Tokyo, centered on a gender ambiguous character with long dark hair and clear ghostly antler-like protrusions from top of head, one hand lifted delicately and a fall leaf drifting above, flowing robe sleeves, lots of train window reflection over the poster, and text saying スターレイル (star rail) which is probably the game’s title
October 1, 2023 at 4:46 PM
laeastra.com
from this book
Book cover that looks like the texture and color of parchment with art of autumn grasses at the bottom, and text that reads: 対訳 折々のうた Oriori no Uta POEMS FOR ALL SEASONS An Anthology of Japanese Poetry from Ancient Times to the Present Ooka Makoto 大岡 信 Janine Beichman ジャニーン・バイチマン 訳
September 30, 2023 at 6:34 AM
laeastra.com
日本語
木のまより ko no ma yori もりくる月の morikuru tsuki no 影見れば kage mireba 心づくしの kokorozukushi no 秋は来にけり aki wa kinikeri よみ人しらず Yomibito shirazu 「古今集」秋上。「心づくし」は心を尽くさせること。秋になると野山の趣が変わってあちらにもこちらにも美しく色づきはじめた自然界のすがたがある。しかもそれらはたちまち過ぎ去ってゆくつかのまの黄金の輝きである。それを思うたびに気がもめる。それが「心づくしの秋」。こちらの主観的な気分に重点をおいて、実は秋の情感を答観的に深くとらえた含蓄ある表現が受け、『源氏物語』その他にひろく愛用された。
September 30, 2023 at 6:31 AM
laeastra.com
Waka from the Heian period
When I look up and see moonlight filter through the trees, I know that autumn, heart-exhausting autumn, is already here Anonymous From Kokinshu, Autumn 1. Kokorozukushi: to use up one's heart, exhaust one's feelings. With autumn, the look of the fields and mountains changes. Here and there beautiful colors begin to dot the natural world. But this is a golden light that lasts but an instant and then is gone. Every time I think of it, says the poet, my heart is uneasy. That is kokoro-zukushi, "heart-exhausting autumn." Though stressing subjective emotion, the evocative phrase in fact captured the feel of autumn with deep objectivity and so won popularity. It was used in the The Tale of Genji and many other works later on.
September 30, 2023 at 6:28 AM
laeastra.com
Thanks to @fifthwheelpress.bsky.social, senpai noticed me!

Still waiting for my rejection, @tbq.bsky.social!!
twitter screenshot with great wave banner, Taco Bell meal illustration in a circular profile photo, light words on a dark background that read: Taco Bell Quarterly @TBQuarterly Follows you
September 30, 2023 at 12:10 AM
laeastra.com
Honored for my poem “Neon Heartbreak” to appear in the dreamland anthology of @fifthwheelpress.bsky.social ! Thank you @gr8earlofhell.bsky.social for sending my first poetry acceptance, I’m very grateful ⭐️ Read here and check out the whole anth:

fifthwheelpress.com/anth4backend...
White text on dark blue background reads: Neon Heartbreak – lae astra September 08, 2023 This morning, I wake up heavy under the pieces of a neon heart. How inconvenient. I shake them off me and go to work, but there they still are when I get home. A glowing pile in the corner, all sharp teeth and leaking color, mixing into warped rainbows. “Not on my floor,” I tell it sternly. “I’m a millennial. I’m renting and can’t afford to fix the damage.” The broken heart leaks harder.
September 29, 2023 at 1:50 PM
laeastra.com
A few months ago, @ajodasso.bsky.social at Strange Horizons gave me one of my very first poetry acceptances. Still feeling how surreal it is to have received a first ever payment for a poem I wrote, from the incredible @strangehorizons.bsky.social ! Thank you AJ Odasso for seeing & encouraging me!
Excerpt from a received payment for poetry, dark text on a white background reads: Note from Strange Horizons Inc.: “for lae astra’s poem “Binary Star System” Transaction Details
September 28, 2023 at 5:52 AM
laeastra.com
“Wingspread (Letter to Yanyi)” appears in the autumn materialization of @astrolabe.ooo !

www.astrolabe.ooo/astra-wingsp...

At the beginning of my journey back into working on writing again, after much time & many winding detours, I read Dream of the Divided Field & The Year of Blue Water by Yanyi.
white words against photograph of lush green momiji leaves in forest, with blurred bokeh green in both foreground and back - Wingspread (Letter to Yanyi) a prose poem in a new constellation of Astrolabe listen to a reading by lae at : youtube.com/@laeastra
September 22, 2023 at 4:36 PM
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Just had a really lovely time attending @sgpoet.bsky.social ‘s workshop, Writing Queer & Trans Joy! My first ever poetry workshop, happy I could join from over here in Japan. Very cozy and inspiring hour among cool humans, well worth waking up early for 😊 A poem draft I wrote during the workshop:
Text reads: at chosen fam house your trans dad spreads out their favorite board game at the kitchen table while your trans mom calls for you to help them serve steamed rice and miso soup into worn ceramic bowls that you chose together. your siblings come and go, across the city or the world, but they're always only a meme text away. you press send on a photo of home.
September 7, 2023 at 12:31 AM