National Poetry Month Day 6: Ally Ang
Send Nudes
Though the world ended, desire
did not. In the absence of touch,
our imaginations spilled over
like watercolors. I read about an app
that could control, from a distance,
a lover’s orgasm. I watched
through a screen as the technology
of sex adapted to touchlessness.
The camera became my lover, a portal
through which I viewed my body sliced
into fragments, wracked with longing
to be seen in places a photograph
could not reach. My nerves deadened
from disuse; my hunger outgrew
the cage I built for it. I lay awake
while it rattled the bars and howled
until I could bear it no longer—I took
a jagged shard of my flesh and un-
leashed my desire. It folded me
into its arms like a mother, then
devoured me. Sucked the muscle
and marrow off my bones until
they were white and glistening. Am I
beautiful now? I asked my hunger.
The click of the camera was the only
reply. I smiled. Hit send.
***
Author photo by Khanh S. Dinh