Miriam W Karraker

real girl, idyll

profile: self as girl → [pink filter, floral emoji, ultra-femme, softly typing]. daily performances of
desired self, enter [#alignments #feelings] so diaristic on web interfaces. two weeks ago I dropped
my laptop, cracked the screen. I experience frequent image disruption. uploading a profile photo:
pixels flash, freeze like green and pink tourmaline. skirt, hair, hands waving from the shore shatter.
image is glimmer, IRL/URL oscillation, abrupt fracture.

 

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blur(s)

with margins and binary code and very sharp edges with which to dent the photo pixel. wonder if
pixel is too rigid, wonder if I am malleable enough to fit desired design. physical design is highly
green but I am questionably yellow. body of work is messy rounded margined like fine botticelli hair.
my contact lens edge sits flush on eye.

 

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haibun: in + out of devices

approach [with device] bench/desk/bed/subway platform, consider this landscape portable. your
hand on warm metal, finger on input device/touch screen— you are at the threshold. translate your
self. capture: a photograph [small dogs/lake smell/book title] → send to user. xyz reminds me of u.
I want to diminish distance. we are heavenly bodies, our silver strings tethered. blue/white screen
feels cool to me, like bedsheets. like tidy/contained extension, aware of this:

i miss u, come here←
→ soon xoxox
[arrive, sleep]

 

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MIRIAM W. KARRAKER is an MFA candidate in poetry at The University of Minnesota. She tweets occasionally @miriWK.