Content Warnings (CW): sexual content
In Response to The Handmaiden dir. By Park Chan-Wook
Akira Ritos
​
I slip satin gloves off at night.
Hours where I can touch
myself freely, without
weight of a man’s sin
on my unfurled brow.
Quietly, I conjure her
moon-colored chest,
candied laughter, voice
the tinkling of jade bells.
Overwhelmed with a
desire so dark that it
tints my tongue and
wets my nails. The
rubbing of a sharp tooth,
her eyes ripe and
untouched. These books
cannot portray in paltry
watercolor—oh—how I wish
to paint her. To drape her
body in words that are
mine and
mine alone.
Akira Ritos is a queer Filipino studying English and Creative Writing at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. They have been previously published in Poetically, WrongDoing Magazine, Marias At Sampaguitas, and Eunoia Review. You can find their face on Instagram @akirasoh.