Current
Issue
Fall 2026 / Volume 13.1
Linda Ryynänen
—
The Meta Make-Out Poem
We are naked and
I am questioning your arrival. Somewhere in this timezone
you are taking off your clothes and putting them in the corner,
and we are watching Adventure Time on the television
and it is blasting and I have taken three edibles and I can feel
myself slipping, but I am looking up at you, with my head on
your lap, and I am saying, “Wanna fuck?” but you’re respectful
and you tell me not right now, and wrap me tighter
in the blanket and I feel myself slipping, again, and
I am suddenly in the bathroom with my clothes off,
and laying on the tiled floor, and I can see it – see it,
a dead fly – under the dryer, beaded eyes, looking at me
and I wonder if I am a fly with my legs curled inwards
but you hold me close and I am suddenly so warm,
and we are fucking, and I leave the shower on, and
I’m sure the neighbors can hear, but for once, I don’t care.
Linda Ryynänen (she/they/it) is an artist, musician, writer and poet currently living in western Maryland. She has poems appearing in The Swannanoa Review, Strange Hymnal, Split Rock Review, Allium: A Journal of Poetry and Prose and more.
