sanitary atoms in unsanitary
conditions, beyond this page,
the disco says no, don’t go,
try stepping with the left foot
again, we can’t lay down
too soon, we can’t escape the orbit,
the cloud remixed for 15 minutes
unhygienic, one hell of a twat,
each gluon my essence, I thought
I heard you laugh but you already
left, already laughed, & I overthought
it, scared myself out of orbit &
saw something unsteady, by my foot,
it was pacing, nervous, like a
neutron with no charge, like 3
people who ascended from
their seats on a Saturday night,
the best night for fighting, for
orgies, for a glimpse of what
could have been
every Saturday night,
in a lace dress, your melanin-less
impersonation, approximation
and handwashed protons
can be selfish
when light emerges from the rotoscope
and I move, you play
a game, pinching electrons
from their dust while
the Twin Peaks theme
plays, demands a
happy ending, for someone
to die & for someone to
reconfigure, to recontextualize
a body out of lace
& into stillness, I see
your stripes underneath,
same as mine before I scratched
them, replaced them, abraded my
dermis, debrided my brain, these
new stripes are slippery with iron,
with a blanket held down
by a few lost but homely quarks