“The Illusion of Touch”

by Anna Saunders

On our last day together.

you tell me you don’t feel a connection.

Before I leave, we walk in the woods.

Your mind is already elsewhere. 

The river is about to burst its banks,

the rapids throw themselves off the rocks.

When we return to the car

you close out the weather. 

I can still feel the wind on me, I claim.

You shake your head and say

what you think is touch

is merely only the friction of our electrons.

On the train back I marvel

at what magicians are our senses,

tossing down cards that the body will misread.

I think of how contact is really an illusion,

a metaphorical slight of no hands,

how our atoms repel

and the repulsion feels like touch.

Later, lying alone in my cold bed

I can hear you say it again,

how you don’t feel a connection

and - ‘when you thought I kissed you,

our lips didn’t even meet.’

Note: The nerve cells that make up our body send signals to our brain that tell us that we are physically touching something, when the sensation of touch is merely given to us by our electron’s interaction with — i.e., its repulsion from — the electromagnetic field permeating spacetime (the medium electron waves propagate through).

Anna Saunders has been described as ‘a poet who surely can do anything’ by The North, ‘a modern myth maker’ by Paul Stephenson, and Tears in the Fence said of her ‘Anna Saunders’ poetry is reminiscent of Plath – with all its alpha achievement and radiance’. She is the author of Communion, (Wild Conversations Press), Struck, (Pindrop Press) Kissing the She Bear, (Wild Conversations Press), Burne Jones and the Fox (Indigo Dreams), and Ghosting for Beginners, (Indigo Dreams). Anna’s new book is Feverfew. (Indigo Dreams). The collection has been described as ‘rich with obsession, sensuousness and potency’ by Ben Ray, and as ‘a beautiful and necessary collection’ by  Penny Shuttle. She is also the Executive Director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival and works as a creative writing tutor and mentor, communications specialist, journalist, broadcaster and copywriter/editor.