lishanshan

You have no right to say such things The truth is somewhere in between it and what exists in my head But then you say it like a certainty, deny my conception of reality, rip it out of me before the first breath I know you don't know any better so I say nothing and tuck away my pains, sink beneath the waves of your words I bottle sand and bits of shells saved from your still- crashing surf to puzzle later but never fit together

The entrails of the machine are spilling in haphazard order Across the allotted space of my desk Silver, red and black coating hug the gold and semi-conductors The heart of the machine, my machine, is heatedly blinking to the wires of a careful and furious transfusion It was surgically removed from the body that could no longer read it We are performing a long overdue emergency operation- First the data that does not quite transfer Save the heart then save the body, Save the mind.

Breathe in, breathe out. The world keeps turning. You are telling me serious things, and I, you. The electronic seconds-arm of the screen keeps flashing. Facebook updates the feed: a new post sliding the rest down, gliding the text sound- lessly away the world keeps turning. You would think such a big old thing should creak and groan at the seams--but it does, and it has all along. We've just gotten used to it. One planet away, a tsunami is ravaging the island states and monsoons beat at fragile shanty-town roofs and all the while, meanwhile, at my dinner-room table, I am waiting for your words to appear. Quietly, silently, digitally, hu