video game

we are sitting in the attic
without clothes on. 
the television screen burns.
you are bare as a stripped moon.
all tangerine in the evergreen light.
there is another level & another.
kill the monster 
with the plastic spoon. 
my mother does not know
your mother. instead, we put
red pepper flakes on our pizza.
get them lodged beneath
our nails. i feel them every time 
you touch me. 
kick the trees until they bleed.
do video games make us velvet 
or have we been that way all along?
these are not questions we need
but questions that swarm.
gnats in our eyes. 
instead we ask 
"how much longer can we play
until i am just a sock puppet & you are
driving home with my brain in 
your stomach?"
you lose & i keep playing.
as long as i'm playing i am not
really naked & you are not really
a hungry boy. the buttons fall
off the controller. 
my gooseflesh spreads. i am 
a butter turkey. later you will
have this on a home movie 
& i will be cutting my tongue out
for the final time. 
you only get nine tries 
at speaking. i wasted them all
telling you, "please, no." 
i win again. pixel. scabbed elbow.
the smell of your rotten hair.