Nate Ritchie
One body isn’t enough.
In vain, I used to contort myself,
hoping I might one day discover the secret
to popping my arms from their sockets
like a child twisting limbs off a doll.
I dreamed of transcendent modification,
of severing the unwanted parts of myself.
These ill-fitting parts I’d replace
over and over until I became
the person I aspired to be –
a person worthy of eternal love.
There came a glimmering night when
I laid with a woman amid red linen sheets.
Holding her in my arms, I experienced a desire
to forever entwine myself with her,
to wrap around her naked body
like a loving boa constrictor.
Yet even then I knew
I wouldn’t be close enough
to the consciousness I adored.
Self-mutilation would lead only to a dead end.
All my life, isolation has strangled me,
split the chambers of my blemished heart,
gnawed at my arteries and tendons.
I need other bodies to marry,
minds to meld with until
I am a beautiful being both many and one,
a being who is never alone.
About the author
Nate Ritchie is a horror fiction writer, journalist, and poet from Ohio. His poetry has been published in literary journals including The Horror Zine, Mania Magazine, and Exquisite Death. Nate believes there is no greater experience than reading a poem and feeling as if the poet has just burned down the whole neighborhood.