Psychoanalyzing Desire With a Spam Bot
After Frantz Fanon
The Spam bot enters my message requests
with a sober existentialist interest in me.
I came into this world anxious to uncover the meaning of things. . .
Hey, I am kinda interested in everything that is unknown to me.
Interest piqued. What does it mean that this
phishing scheme mirrors my last attempt at
Dating? Hey, I want to meet new people, tell
me all (about yourself). I proclaim I am an open
book. This bot is similarly interested and yet
I charge this inquiry fake. How can I call this
spam bot’s desire false? Desire always
reveals. Here I am an object among other objects.
I respond to this relatable call for connection.
I receive an Invoice for my interest. Yearly
subscription to security software for my heart.
It goes into effect tonight unless you call and
install this malware of heartworms. Spam
bot reminds me my worldviews and intelligence
are artificial. I was programmed to destroy all
I set my heart on. Laptop humming hot, I blush
knowing love was just transferred through fiber
optics. What a Kinky way to jump in an inbox.
I explode
Against Comfort
After Danez Smith, less hope
How many times will consent be
manufactured with our names
on it? Coke can candidates get you
free entry into the amusement park
of political theater. A rigged game is
worth it when the ante is somebody
else’s body and the teddy bear prize
smiles so sweet. How many elections is
too many elections to bank our hope
on? Burning buildings done personified
themselves into people demanding loyalty
via kinship. A whole imagination auto drafted
and preloaded in the cortex of American free
thinkers. How many self-care days until
revolutionary conscience arrives? Check
the code, the programming—the proof
is in the Java/Script. What isn’t comfort
affording? What lies in a turn away from
the individual luxury of a life well lived
without others in mind? It is afterdeath,
a future of multiverse lighthouses
where we keep the light /
energy bouncing where /
when it is needed.
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