"You're Saltwater / I'm Chlorine" is Rubin's third poetry collection—It's a muddy distillation of his childhood, growing up alone in his queerness in a small town in rural Oregon. The title grabs at the central feeling of the collection—when someone feels so much bigger than you—the ocean personified—in the locker room, comparing depths with the community pool. The collection yearns for love even as the world ends, even as the yearning has long transformed into bitter frustration.
Rubin Forrette (also known by the pseudonyms Mason Yeller and Cape Gloam) is a queer poet and artist currently based in Portland, Oregon, and an alumnus of Southern Oregon University. Unafraid of vulnerability, her work focuses on themes of queer sexuality and body dysphoria/euphoria. He believes in the vibrancy of sincerity, loudly proclaiming his love for the world through his work.