Christopher Lloyd

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in relation

rather than a dick pic he sends a video
of a bird slicing through pink clouds—
& I can’t help
but connect it to the cover
of ‘cranes in the sky’ that he put on as I gifted
my jockstrap to his warm mouth—which was a reversal
I guess of our earlier power-play
when he lifted me up in the park
legs wrapped around his waist like I was a child
again—which conjures images of smashed conkers
from lengths of string in the nippy welsh air—at least
it feels cold in my memory whereas now the conkers seem
to fall earlier and earlier as all things
irrevocably heat up—along the canal we notice how
the horse chestnuts look burnished as if it’s autumn already
but it’s actually the leaf miner moth
weathering the tree away scalding its greenery—
& I can’t help but link him teaching me this to the way he grabs
my hand (I notice an old couple notice us)
& where he gestures to abundance I see glimmers
of erosion—& I wonder when the internet goes down
how people will share naked pictures of themselves
or whether we’ll go back to dating
through pure speculation

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CHRISTOPHER LLOYD (he/him) is a writer and academic. His pamphlet, Pick Up Your Feelings, came out in April 2024 with fourteen publishing.