Photographer: Cody Perry
Model and Poem Author: Josh Tvrdy (IG / Website)

In the Beginning

For Sam

I have a friend who carved a hole
in the end of a thick cucumber, then hollowed

a tube all the way through
with a spoon. Gentle scraping. Yes,

he fucked the hole he made.
He was a closet-Christian, and nothing

says closet-Christian
like creative masturbation. Or masturbation

with creation. Creation being
the juiciest produce Safeway had to offer.

He didn’t tell me this, but I imagine him lifting
that delicate thing to his eye

and looking through his window at the world
tunneled-dolloped sky, piece

of his neighbor’s lemon tree. I made this, he thinks,
a little ashamed, a little amazed,

which is maybe what we’ll always feel
possessed by desire. I made this—

his dick soft now, sticky, flecked with pale seeds.

POEM BY JOSH TURDY