The Torture of the Electrons

A ballad.

In the beginning there was the byte
(the apple tasted real, and yet
temptation seemed so fleeting.) Could the wet
enticing promises we write,
in urgent bursts of hasty text
that volley on throughout the night,
begin to conjure up the sharp delight
of wild-abandon, shameless sex?

They can. They do! How could I know
that you would burrow 'neath my skin,
invade my heart, and then begin
to ache, and that the ache would grow
until the only cure, it seems,
is for us both to blithely show
to one another, in the glow
of liquid screens, our wettest dreams?

No parts too private, and no pose
too prurient -- I showed you my
erupting manhood; with a sigh
you plumbed your depths for me with those
salacious fingers, licking off the dew
and coming to the camera to disclose
your most compelling wetness, 'til the throes
of passion overtook both me and you.

Alas! Too soon the ache returned
one hundredfold, a keen desire,
an all-consuming fervent fire
that left us not assuaged, but burned.
To see but not to touch or taste
was not enough, we quickly learned,
our distant raptures seemed unearned,
caresses aren't so easily displaced.

That screen became a prison door
that coldly, cruelly thwarted me,
an obstacle to ecstasy
and not a portal like before.
And oh, the restless, chafing need!
Are you online? I must adore
you now, and more, and more, and more,
I'm famished, darling, hear me plead!

A sprawling skein of waves and wire
that coils the planet twice around,
a Babel made of light and sound
that somehow carries our desire --
and which electrons should I praise
for showing me your ardent fire,
what lines of code should I admire
for teaching me your loving ways?

We've planned a lovers' rendezvous,
we'll travel far through time and space
to meet each other face to face,
Not satisfied to talk and view
across the void, we'll make a pact,
I'll cross the wall of fire with you
to kiss, and taste, and suck. And screw
the consequences of the act.

The moment is at hand, my sweet.
Imagination cheated me! No dreams
could blaze like this; it seems
like suns collide when first we meet.
A torrent of desire commands
my senses! Vivified, they greet
your scent, your taste, the blissful heat
imparted by your mouth and hands.

I am your hungry devotee,
I worship at the flooding of your tide.
We'll put our worldly cares aside,
I'll sing to you a rhapsody
of how it feels so deep inside,
the best, the sweetest certainty
that you can dance this dance with me
until the culmination of our ride.

Now night must fall, unhappily.
Our glowing paradise must fade
and we'll go home from whence we've strayed,
where we'll resume, reluctantly,
our former digital romance.
We'll grasp at shadows ardently
and though it's pixels that we see
we'll move as one, together in the dance.