“What Species is this?” © Ken Tomaro

 

lust used to be so romantic in the poetic sense, you know?

nobody is

turning me into their dirty AI chatbot slut
at 3AM. i’m not caressed

by the oiled hands of cloaked cosmic desires
when someone is finally alone. no phones

slammed between friends on a slick bar top
followed by a “fuck

me, i wish!” chapped kisses at awkward angles are
all forgotten. the discount k-mart skeleton

i embody has been locked forever in someone’s
closet. most days i am not

even a garbage bag
stretched over flesh
retaining blood
cradling bone
protecting sweet
marrow.

let alone

an object

of unbridled lust only
felt by the lonesome (not lonely). unfortunately

my boxer briefs
with colorful, generic birds on them have no resale value.

no one will pay
$100 for a vial of my spit. even if

my corpse got house of
waxed, no gentle hands would run themselves

over my jagged ribs and pitted chest. my only
missed connections are sawtooth metal and a rush

of the spectral knowing – that
in the kaleidoscope eyes of wanting,

i am a bruised baby doe.

 

Conor Ryan (he/him) has been quietly sharing his poetry via the moniker @itypedumbthings for almost a decade now. His poems have been called both “unhinged” and “weirdly tender” by strangers on the internet. Besides being self-leaked into the void, in the past his poems have been published in dark and unknowable places.

Bestselling author Ken Tomaro is the self-proclaimed Poet Laureate of the Cleveland sewer system, whose work reflects everyday life with depression. His poetry has appeared in several online and print journals and explores the common themes we all experience. Sometimes blunt, often dark, but always grounded in reality.