I’m always the last to send a letter,

Whether the start or finish, worse or better

Than the ones I receive.

–

People lose the rhyme in surface speaking.

The meaning goes AWOL among the leaking

Anecdotes and ‘how are you’s and the ‘I am fine’s.

–

And I’m left with more stamps than return addresses.

I sent a memory and got back anticipation time lapses.

I guess I’ll try with someone new.

Static fills the space inside my head.

Steel support beams hold up brushed stolen ceilings,

And there are strangers crammed into tubes of lead;

This machine of moving parts pushes us all together.

She’s crying because her baby is two aisles away.

He’s crying because he’s a baby and his mother can’t stay.

I’m crying because I can’t get home in time.