Sugar le Fae: Two Poems

Love, an Abstract

His torso’s door gnashing ravenously,

the Tin Man chases,

chest-first, after the heart floating

an arm’s length out of reach

in his own hand.

Clownfish

—after Britney Spears

My feelings for you are like the incestuous

loneliness of the sea anemone. To be all-feeling

is its own kind of hell. The dull charge of my desire

killing me slowly, a tangy numbness humming

me like musical filaments, tingling till

I sting in all directions. Everyone but you

must beware of my bioelectric mermaid hair.

Confess, it’s thrilling to feel me brush up against you!

I shiver sometimes, thinking about how

still you can be, so close to me: so bright it hurts.

Believe it or not, you’re the only one.

Sugar le Fae (aka Zach Matteson) is a prize-winning poet, translator, teacher, photographer, songwriter, and Radical Faerie. His poems, essays, and interviews have appeared in numerous literary journals in Canada and the U.S., most recently in Plenitude and Bear Review. Sugar has an MFA in Creative Writing (UBC) and is currently pursuing his PhD at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice (UBC).