"Affidavit Disregarding the Body", Anurak Saelaow

And yes, Anurak, sex is boring.
But suppose in its writhing

a gnostic cadence –

some selfish conviction
of the body

as fulcrum 

to a fuller universe.

As if sensation itself 
were the crux:

the self as waterspout

picking up boats, people –
swirling detritus

inside his belly 

until sodden meaning
tumbles out.

Not exactly flaneur
or roving eye,

he swallows

and swallows and swallows.

Leaving in the rind,
the thorn, the live wire –

feeling the way 
each thing writhes or changes,

the way each thing changes him.

/ Anurak Saelaow is a Singaporean poet. His work has appeared in Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Hayden's Ferry Review, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, The Kindling, Ceriph, and elsewhere.

READ: "Humiliation at O'Hare in Nine Parts", Wahid Al Mamun

← READ: "LUNE, YOU ARE A PIRATE AND YOU HAVE TO BE A WOMAN TO BE A WOMAN", Lune Loh

2021.2Daryl Qilin YamPoetry