A Hangover Of Voice Messages

march is the hangover of voice messages, reconnecting with old friends like clumsy lovers getting it half-right, a note of hope and change in the air.
--Ansel Appleton

It's been two weeks since his heart stopped
Thirteen days since the eviction notice arrived
A week since amnesty

Yesterday the ashes arrived on my doorstep
He wanted to be ink
Enough ink to fill a book on my shelf
But the body doesn't burn to liquid
Never achieves the fine of sand or the density of snow
His ashes are too clotty to salt my porch with
I refuse to plant his body in the garden I never tend to

Last night I kept a promise I couldn't make
This morning I deleted another eulogy
By noon I was a flashlight on the sun
An hour later, a match

Before night escaped from my room and filled the sky
I dreamed I was a number he couldn't subtract himself from

The phone has never stopped ringing


*click*

Thank you for calling Adam's semi-responsive cell phone
I'm not willing to pick up the phone right now
So please leave a message after the sound of the click
And I'll ignore you as soon as possible

*click*

There's been a spill at the baby oil factory
One of the needles got stuck in a skull's soft spot
The whole assembly line broke down
There's babies everywhere
I've never seen anything like this before
I have the softest hands

*click*

Hi
This is Your Obligations calling
I've been waiting on your porch for months now
It's cold
And the doorbell isn't working

I know we've never met before
But I'd really like to come inside and straighten a few things out

Hello?

*click*

Someone has hired a crocodile to weep over Route 6A
Still the snow refuses to melt

The road knows insincerity

*click*

(heavy breathing)

*click*

I caught my reflection in a car window 
This time I'm not letting it go

If you get this message
Call me on my cell phone

I'm not moving until everyone I know sees this
It turns out that I really am 
*crackle* 
*static*
*static* had nothing to do with me
It's all just *crackle* 
*crackle* 
*static* 
*crackle* 
*static*
Current Mood:  still alive
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 Leave a comment | 5 comments
Sun, Mar. 21st, 2004 01:14 am (UTC)
seattlesque: Last night I kept a promise I couldn't make Last night I kept a promise I couldn't makeThey need to add a "Black Gospel Choir" feature to LiveJournal, where instead of all the comments appearing at the end you can optionally interject lines at random places in the midsts of posts where you can say "Amen" or "Praise Be"...I'd have done that a few times here.

I'm not letting it go, and I'm not moving either.

Vile ends now.
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Mon, Mar. 22nd, 2004 08:02 am (UTC)
androidlustre: ahhh.i'm going to refer everyone who asks me how i'm doing to this post. not really, but i should.
thanks.
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Wed, Apr. 7th, 2004 11:41 pm (UTC)
natawn84: This is amazingI read this a couple days ago and I was blown away. tonight at the open mic we have here at Galileo's, I tried to interpret the performance as best I could.
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Wed, Apr. 7th, 2004 11:45 pm (UTC)
akamuu: Re: This is amazingThanks. Now that I've excorcised part of it for "Your Body Sulfur Potential", I'm trying to get "A Hangover of Voice Messages" to be my new very atypical piece. It's been a while since I've tried writing spoken word that has no narrative. When I get it finished, I'll send a copy your way.
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Thu, Apr. 8th, 2004 02:11 pm (UTC)
natawn84: Re: This is amazingThanks.
I had some trouble with getting the sounds right because I have only just started trying onomonopoeias recently in performing but never really in writing.
And on the last static it just came out shhshhhhh.
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