โป ABOUT . ISSUES . EVENTS โป
๐๐ธ๐ฌ๐ฑ ๐๐ช๐ฒ๐ต๐ต๐ฒ๐ฎ
๐๐พ๐ป๐ฒ๐ท๐ฐ ๐๐ฑ๐ธ๐ท๐ฎ ๐ข๐ฎ๐, ๐ ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ท๐ด ๐๐ซ๐ธ๐พ๐ฝ ๐ฝ๐ฑ๐ฎ ๐๐น๐ฌ๐ธ๐ฝ ๐๐ช๐ต๐ต
like, You like that and fuck, baby and I wish you were here
and through it all, I keep thinking about this one
ride at Disney, inside the Epcot Ball where
for fifteen minutes you take a time machine
through a brief history of human communication
and Iโm specifically thinking about the fluorescent
phone cables flashing green and blue and yellow and
I wonder if thatโs what it looks like between us
or if itโs something warmer and pinker and male
this velvet void where you empty your grunts
and they sometimes empty themselves into me
and eventually I fake it because Iโm feeling so tired
or we already did it once today and I say goodnight
and feel a half-disinterested guilt about riding it
all the way to the end, artificially. But all of it was
artificial, right? The space and the sound and the lack.
You were never there, for that part anyway. So Iโd go
to sleep again and again, wondering how many times
we would do it without doing it at all.
๐๐ป๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ช๐ต ๐๐ป๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฌ๐พ๐ต๐พ๐ผ
And then what, whenthe computer writes
the perfect volta, twists
the metaphor so many
times it snaps, talks
about protoporphyrin IX
and eldritch forests and
frit and lepidoptera and
plumule and anechoic
chambers and rosin and
achiote and preening
and asterisms and
gouache and big top
and pleurodont and
igneous and ayahuasca
and liberine and cadmium
and night-blooming and
xerophyte and strata
and tenon and lappets
and piscary and semibreve
and devitrication and
rostrum and pelagic zone
and mesotic and liripipe
and shellac and chalaza
and motley fool and
celadon and reeded edges
and lactococcus and
filigree and kintsugi
and zills and pith and
tastevin and advent and
nucleation sites and
emery paper and glissade
and helve and anaerobic
digestion and alabaster
and asperitas and halteres
and papillary ridges and
agaris and polymath and
vigesimal and achromatopsia
and gores and nuptials and
ambling and cantilever
and philately and endemism
and foresail and tideland
and perigee and Ophiucus
and proxemics and desire
paths and urban sprawl
and croton and titin and
becomingness and platen
and crรจme anglaise and
grawlix and apricity and
tasseography and aestivation
and ashlar and clitellum
and swage and trilling and
polarity and cornice and
blazon and anthropause
and Archimedes screw and
ventriloquism and auscultate
and lip-synching and sibilance
and canton and aqueduct and
codpiece and deciduousness
and telos and ataraxia and
circumpolar and amauti
and ultraviolet rays and hops
and cochlea and vestibule
and mea culpa and penance
and appetition and bedlam
and dimezone and ghee and
halogen light and brim and
stigmata and digital lavender
and acetone and rebirth
and then what, when
Loch Baillie (he/il) is a queer poet and writer based on the south shore of Quebec City. He is the author of the chapbooks Citronella (Anstruther Press, 2024) and ice, dove, parachute (forthcoming with Cactus Press). Additional writing by Loch has been published in Macleanโs , Font , yolk literary , and Tidewise.