against me

By Salem Paige

​and whir and it and clank it clanks it holds and holds me to and from and its chest and chest and wires and chest and broad and whir and moan it moans it says and says and moans and whirs and I ask it and ask it to whir and fan its fans and its and bones and its bones broad and whirring and hold I hold my self and her and self and it and against me and it through the whir and whir and pop and metal all metal without bones and with and without but like them and like and them full of light and fluid and fluid and fluid made of light and whirring and all metal metal on skin and metal and cold and metal and whir vibrating whir and a new frequency frequen cy a frequency a fre quency a whir the sky a whir a holding and close and together and skin-metal and kiss and against me like a whir like a world-sized moan and a whir and a crippling whir and poweing down and on top of me and a hir and under and moan and against the fre quency and the metal and me against this machine – 

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Salem Paige is a poet and multidisciplinary artist based on traditional Coast Salish territories (so-called Vancouver, British Columbia). Their works revolve around the exploration of identity and discomfort, often through natural and technological worlds, and can be found in their debut collection of poetry The Third Self (2023, Sunday Mornings at the River Press) and their chapbooks miraculous dead things (2025, above/ground press), evolution artificialis (2025, Anstruther Press) and to grow roots (2023, bottlecap press), as well as several dozen literary journals and magazines. They have previously been twice nominated for Best of the Net, shortlisted for the Ralph Gustafson Poetry Prize and the Bridport Poetry Prize, and longlisted for the ROOM Poetry Prize. More on Salem can be found at salempaige.com or @corpseofapoet on the Internet.