contact
by Megan Waring
This is the simplest pleasure
I say, as we spoon. And it’s free.
You tell me that’s a real thing, a feeling
called skin hunger. Babies craving skin
to skin contact, monkeys craving plush
mamas. I remember when I moved
to California. Stranger in a state
of new faces and giant redwoods,
their bark thick to protect the heart.
A month of touch famine,
skin starving. Picture the camera
panning slow motion at Apple Fest.
Two barefoot boys pushing the press
to squeeze the juice from apple, pulp
and skin, into glass jugs passed around
like communion. Banjo on a makeshift
stage, girls spinning like Stevie Nicks, tarot
cards laid on blankets, feather earrings
being sold, bread being passed around,
chunks stripped and devoured, laughter.
Stop on me. Sitting in a rickety chair.
A girl cutting my hair with kitchen scissors.
Her name is Moon. She lifts strands, sending
goosebumps down the nape of my neck.
When she brushes the loose from my shoulders,
hand touching arm, I cry.
I say, as we spoon. And it’s free.
You tell me that’s a real thing, a feeling
called skin hunger. Babies craving skin
to skin contact, monkeys craving plush
mamas. I remember when I moved
to California. Stranger in a state
of new faces and giant redwoods,
their bark thick to protect the heart.
A month of touch famine,
skin starving. Picture the camera
panning slow motion at Apple Fest.
Two barefoot boys pushing the press
to squeeze the juice from apple, pulp
and skin, into glass jugs passed around
like communion. Banjo on a makeshift
stage, girls spinning like Stevie Nicks, tarot
cards laid on blankets, feather earrings
being sold, bread being passed around,
chunks stripped and devoured, laughter.
Stop on me. Sitting in a rickety chair.
A girl cutting my hair with kitchen scissors.
Her name is Moon. She lifts strands, sending
goosebumps down the nape of my neck.
When she brushes the loose from my shoulders,
hand touching arm, I cry.
Megan Waring is a poet, playwright and fiber artist who currently resides in Boston. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from Virginia Tech and is currently earning her MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her work is forthcoming or published in Salamander, Nailed Magazine, Mortar Magazine, The Legendary, and Belle Ombre, among others. Her second co-authored play, Archer and the Yeti, was produced by Greene Room Productions in October 2019.