Rachel Stempel
Kafka’s Romantic Comedy

Abstract(s)
Love, for one.

Man stuffs his gullet, remembers
a room in The House of Before God
where kissing made it better.

Saliva is six-times more
than morphine, sends the pain
from a room in the House of Now
to his outer limbs.

Man loves deeply
himself and the space between himself and others.

Horrible vermin, we all are in love.

Table of Contents
Analog maps of the death drive.

Glossary
Rule 34: porn exists for all
conceivables.

Introduction
Gregor Samsa is a kink icon. And we must ask ourselves
if the furry community harbors jealousy
toward his seamless transition or pours one out
in solidarity. If we’ll ever have the luxury of shuddering
when we touch ourselves. We must ask ourselves
why begging is a universal tongue. Why
economics is a chastity belt. Why
an image of a fur muff makes perverse
the attempt to save it.

And, why a sister is a kind of executioner.

Results
Gregor Samsa starves, refuses
the rot of love in exchange for the rot of empty.
It’s all he can stomach since the start,
some rot or another.

The maid leaves open the door—love at a distance.

Discussion
But Gregor Samsa, oblivious
as ever, only recognizes sound:

of his sister’s disgust;
then, of her violin.

It takes a woman to attract.
It takes a girl to lure.

It takes the bug-meat body of a never-man to see the difference.

Conclusion
We can believe anything we set our minds to.
Play the martyr, slam every door.

Roaches can live up to three months decapitated—

O, how easy that would make things!