By Christopher Linforth
I miss those emails
you sent me:
called me licorice boy
after a season in
Finland, & I stayed
silent, unwilling to
reply, even after
being a reply-guy
for so many years,
deaf to what you
actually wanted,
& I remember you
saw us as a duet,
our minds & voices
in rapture,
with so much to
say about our future
that I missed the part
about the air around me
carrying the sound
of only a single breath.
Christopher Linforth’s latest book is The Distortions (Orison Books, 2022).