April 25, 2026

Reciprocal

 4/2026 (c)

I don’t know, call me old-fashioned.

I never got into erotic asphyxiation.

 

Maybe it was because after months

I still never knew his last name,

or where he and his family lived,

 

only that when he texted

occasional offers

of what felt like timely,

necessary orgasms

 

they meant his meaty hand

around my throat,

pressing—

 

until I pictured a snapped hyoid bone

or a busted mandible, trachea.

 

I felt captive.

 

He wouldn’t engorge,

couldn’t ejaculate

and I believed this threat of harm

was the closest to pleasure he’d come,

 

and I am, if nothing else,

reciprocal..