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Lil Miquela Contemplates my Freckles
Little satchel of sachets
Little galaxy of mud
Little spots the envious turn to needle or pen for
Little littles
Little breath of confused dust
Chameleon torch
Hammock of fruit flies, asleep
You are us by way of constructed face
By way of features designed for emulsion
Designed for stardom without question
I can teach you the astronomy:
What are you?
A cyborg, remember? You designed me
Repeat it in every song and they’ll let you keep them,
Your little mask of ambiguous garnish
Above your lips, below your eyes
All features of acceptable width
Cherish it,
That clout cloud
That algorithm of melanin
That face, precious in its wash
Whereas precious comes from
Latin pretiosus costly
Your most profitable feature
& theirs
Em Dial is a queer, Black, Taiwanese, Japanese, and white chronically ill poet, grower, and educator born and raised on Ohlone land in the Bay Area of California. A 2022 Kundiman Fellow and recipient of the 2020 PEN Canada New Voices Award and the 2019 Mary C. Mohr Poetry Award, their work also appears in or is forthcoming from the Literary Review of Canada, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, Sonora Review, and elsewhere.