The Condescension Of My Own Tongue

MANIFEST DESTINY
​Denise Duhamel

In the Philippines
women workers in fashion doll factories
are given cash incentives
for sterilization. Body parts roll
too fast on conveyor belts.
It’s not like the famous episode
in which Lucy and Ethel
try a day of work, boxing chocolates
on an assembly line in the U.S. They stuff
most of the quick-coming candy
into their mouths, laugh brown drool
when they are fired because it doesn’t really matter--
Ricky and Fred have good jobs.
To prove they’re the ones
who belong at work, the men on TV
make a mess in Lucy’s kitchen,
a pot of rice exploding
like a white volcano. The women
in the Philippines and elsewhere ponder
big business, the benefits
of discontinuing its own children. In dreams
these women package Toys “ᴙ” Us uteruses
while a sterile Barbie, her hair tucked up
inside her Lucite helmet, plants
a flag for Mattel on the cheesiest moon.

from Denise Duhamel's Kinky
recommended by Matt Mason

APHASIA IN WHICH I MISTAKE MY LOVER AS A TOY
Adam Stone

I was mistaken when i told you i had a bad experience
dating a furry While i have merged bank
accounts and internal
fluids with people lost in their gender or 
age I have never 
trysted with someone who
identified as another
species My experience was with
furbies Gibberish spewing
wannabe dancers demanding me to 
bedtime story them to off
Punchline all interactions I do not
speak consistency either so i could
identify with the wave of
language The condescension of my own
tongue

It is my fault for
shelving something that can 
word Believing it is my right to be
loved in exchange for entertainment

I had hoped the furby would wing
parrot Mimic my
vocabulary Who wouldn’t want to
train another creature to 
understand the grammar and
syntax of their own wont How was i to know every
creature comes
preprogrammed to sound methodically
human and young