Vessels
by Anne Carly Abad
narrated by Lourdes Abad
Capillaries spider-veined into the viewing panel
like the ink he spilled on his sketch of skyline:
Blood vessels, buzzed the android operator
of the 3D printer: Cellular globs floated in flesh,
like the bubbles their children loved to blow:
epidermis, with some fat. He was no expert.
His wife’s new lips modeled after popular
symmetries. She would wear them
and he would learn to mold his kiss.
Leave them be, he told her
long before the operation. She insisted
he didn’t understand, but he did
and she did not see it was his failure.
He couldn’t make her see herself beautiful
no matter how long or how deep
he kissed her, she’d call her body hideous
and print his love on her skin
to assure herself he would never leave.
BIO: Anne Carly Abad recently placed in the Diogen Autumn Contest for Haiku, Senryu, Tanka & Haiga. Her work has appeared or will appear in Dreams & Nightmares, Strange Horizons, and Ares Magazine. Find out more about her at http://the-sword-that-speaks.blogspot.com/
Tags: Anne Carly Abad, Poetry