pornographer

Ami Xherro

Am I alone here?
Am I the only
masturbator
on this page?
Did you 
or did you not
jerk to 
your white
fleeting
gods
earlier today,
reading 
the newspaper?
You’re sorry,
I know what 
you do
when you’re 
all alone.
You know 
what I would do
to find a warm thing 
to be caught in.

Anyway 
I wanted to know
if I was alone here.
I wanted a Really
Big Romance.

To clear the image
from my eye, 
It will take a deep breath
It will take a China
It will take a Valium
It will take a truck 
It will take the endurance of a family’s bickering
It will take the language of love
for desire to exit
for something to take its place.

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Ami Xherro’s first chapbook, The Unfinished Flame, was published by Swimmers Group in 2017. Her work has appeared in the Hart House Review, Shrapnel, University College Review, Long con, Autodidact, the Poetry Institute of Canada’s annual anthology. She also makes sound poetry with the Toronto Experimental Translation Collective. We seek to renegotiate relationships within and across languages and media using homophonics and public transcription practices.