Synkroniciti is thrilled to welcome poet Heather Pease of California with two incisive works that interrogate expectations around gender and romantic relationships. Our culture carries a long lineage of preconceived, prejudiced, and often damaging notions about how women and men should behave. Heather dismantles these inherited scripts with vivid, fearless imagery, revealing the quiet violences and coded permissions that shape the dynamics of intimacy.
“Mr. Potato Head” connects childhood toys, stories, and treats with the misogynistic and abusive behaviors exhibited by immature, socially stunted men. The poem’s playful surface becomes a sharp instrument.
“These Play-Doh men with their glass slipper fetish/. Oh baby girl, squish them together; their colors// all the same with their shrinky dink eyes/ so easy to see through./ Girl, to those boys, you are just a Barbie.// Woman, you’re too grown-up to let boys be boys.”
Every line pops with cultural references that illuminate the encoded permissions society grants men: permissions that excuse irresponsibility, reward predation, and demand women’s compliance. Heather’s language co-opts the lexicon of play, turning it inside out to reveal the rot beneath. Each word is placed with intention, creating a powerful critique that is as imaginative as it is unflinching.
Her second piece, “Whoa to Woe,” is a brilliant reverse poem, readable from top to bottom and bottom to top, offering layered nuance and emotional depth. Here, Heather explores the moment when flirtation and affection curdle, when interest becomes unwanted, and persistence creates danger. Our culture has long romanticized the man who “hangs around” until the woman relents, even when his behavior edges toward stalking. Heather gives voice to the beloved’s experience: the discomfort, the fear, the erosion of safety when “no” is not honored.
Heather asks a vital question: How do we talk about letting go when affection is unwanted? How do we unlearn the narratives that valorize pursuit at the expense of consent? These poems open the door to a necessary conversation, one that insists on clarity, agency, and the courage to rewrite the stories we’ve inherited.
Read Heather’s unflinching poems in Synkroniciti’s Expectations, Vol. 8, No. 2, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Heather Pease (she/her) is a poet and spoken-word performer who writes about the stuff people whisper about at 2 a.m.: mental health, feminism, survival, and the messy beauty of being human. Based in Long Beach, she’s the author of Out of the Weeds. Her work has appeared in Alpha Female Society, Oddball Press, Rat’s Ass Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, and anthologies. She’s performed at the House of Blues and venues that let her hold a mic. Equal parts geeky and witchy, she reads tarot, consults the stars, and shares her home with two cats and an alarming number of poems.