the problem with virtual places
Mary Caldwell-Kane

sopping wet metaphors again
she grumbles at his white moon on Flickr
looming over a perfectly placed apologetic sea
it’s amore claims the caption

the photo touches the woman
so says her typed response
he fills up a pretend page with pleased emoticons :) :) :)
happy to be on top of her again

here a lifelike ache
fills her gut with hanker

no, she argues this air is substance
unreality our reality

until she sees his still active profile on eHarmony

fuck you, she texts

a little misunderstanding, he emails later

“his breath stinks like a rotting corpse”
she writes on his Facebook wall

he tags a picture with her name on MySpace
a prize winning hog from the saratoga county fair

lol say her friends in silent unison

she would have laughed
but for the sudden gush of warm water on flesh