psa: phone seeking love affair

My phone’s SMS updated

against my will. If a text that never sent

now goes through, call it

romantic retrocausality if we no longer talk but I once professed

undying love for you. Today,

I’m single.

Are you?

I think of us, of you.

Text back if you still think

of me too – it’s been eons

since my texting thumbs held a hand. I’ve forgotten

how non-digital touch feels

in this smartphone world

of singleness.

As technology advances, my relationships regress. I’ll settle

for your emoji kiss. If

my phone dings from you,

I’ll cherish

notification of love.

7:07 PM ✔

Tracy Dubin is a Two-Spirited international lecturer, multi-genre writer, and requited love enthusiast published in HAD, Gulf Stream Magazine, Maudlin House, The Harvard Gazette, Hobart, FlashFlood, fifth wheel press, and elsewhere.  Longlisted for 2025’s Bath Flash Fiction Award and SmokeLong Quarterly’s The Smokey, Tracy’s currently curating her first flash-filled novel.  She lives in Los Angeles alongside her giant African Sulcata tortoise, Fredrick Bartholomew, who resides in her (renovated-for-reptiles) living room.  She’s dichotomous, androgynously fluid, and pens comedy too – her written word understands.  Find her frolicking amongst digital trees and shout from treetops you love her: linktr.ee/TracyDubin.