the time travel body
by Angel Leal
the time travel body
mourns as it
repeats its mistakes.
another night spent hungry.
a starving machine,
you already know
this timeline. the traveling
body stops mid-memory,
male friends
squeeze biceps, eyes glowing.
electric moments
of fingers
poking pockets of fat. running
jumping out of
your skin.
the time travel body
is memory & wires
& flesh
surging with possibility.
why does it take us
home?
where old friends can find
your new face
still
forming into a woman.
“Who are you, friend?
You always
take change too far. If you’re
a woman, then this
is science fiction.”
Yes, it is, says the time travel
body. Because
change
belongs to eyes that can
make up tomorrow,
invent
possibility. & we still
speak, so I know
this is
science fiction.
Goodbye, says
the time
travel body. I loved you
as boys love.
a warp of years
sinks us through time
& now I’m
beginning
here
Angel Leal is a Latine, trans, neurodivergent writer whose previous work appears in Strange Horizons, Radon Journal, Uncanny Magazine, The Deadlands, Anathema: Spec from the Margins, and elsewhere. They’ve been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Rhysling, Best of the Net, and are a co-admin of CALAMITOUS, a queer SFFH writing group. You can find them at angel-leal.com or on Twitter (@orbiting_angel).
