Carp

It feels better
biting down

we touch in the way we can
no arms
we breathe by machine

and take vacation in our sleds
planet air
and our thousand year savings accounts

we go to the restaurant
see
the carp undying
in chinese zero gravity
to look
but not touch

tumors jut
from soft white scales
blind

its thoughts
broken
they say
touch the glass
for luck
and long life
ravaged
by age related disease
our parts gleam in the halflight

one thousand years old
dreaming of nice girls
and black cars
and sludge coiling around its gills
like smoke.

nice thoughts
nice friends

we remember the clan wars
how
in zero g
heads do not loll
lifeless
mouths do not drop open

and sharing dinner together before we both go back
into the black verse
we both look to the glass
and see
the ancient, undying carp
has already forgotten who he was
or why he is here
or if he is even in an aquarium

and we fold space
from Ix

to navigate our ships
through space

most of our body
replaced
by electronics
and this
strange impermanence
vibrant, easy to replace

if but
in the middle of the night
where once we met in the forest
with the man in suit and tie
and slender arms
or both of us remember
the run down the tunnel
and the middle of the night


she calls me up
on a prison phone

even then
everyone loves the pilot
except the crew

even then it was
make miss me
mrs. you

and so we both go back to space
to travel the cold distance
but just once
let me touch you
with electronic arms
blake light blonde
in quiet bliss
velvet blue
anime

I cannot feel the rain
I do not eat
or breathe

All hail the queen

heading out of the system
where it's safe
to turn on the drive
and fold space
and time

Maybe it's love.
Maybe it's hate.