Love Organically

This poem was written in response to the Rattle® Poetry Ekphrastic Challenge for September 2023 and was ultimately not selected. You can find more information here.

https://www.rattle.com/ekphrastic/

Love Organically

Baby, put down the phone

Turn off the technology

Raise your eyes upward

And reach your hands out to me

-

Don’t let the text do the talking

Let your lips speak the words

Breathe them onto my neck

Sweet things the darkness overheard

-

Don’t send me pictures of a flower

Bring me real ones in a vase

I won’t send you back a smiley

Instead, I’ll show you on my face

-

To hear the naturalness of your voice

Distorted not through a phone

To touch your face and see with eyes

Not behind a camera lens shown

-

Don’t communicate in gifs and memes

Tell me exactly what you desire

Look deep into my eyes

And I will show you the emoji “fire”

-

Let me feel the warmth of your flesh

As your body lies on top of mine

I want none of that robotic-ness

Of that electronic device of thine

-

For that thing with constant dings

Its distraction fills the air

So silence all but our breathing

As I run my fingers through your hair

-

And I will lay my head upon your chest

After all our love is through

We will whisper to each other

And speak as lovers do

-

Skin to skin, the human heart

Not cold glass and metal seam

We must be face-to-face to love

The way people were meant to be

-

Open the entirety of your soul

In all its vulnerability

But set aside those electronics

That have corrupted humanity

-

So baby, put down the phone

Turn off the technology

And I will do the same

Come, let us love organically

Submitted under MRB