Static
for a friend
She squeezed out the silence
a final embrace
begging
for letters
rearranging
replacing
died with
dying
She did not tell me
over the phone
her second call that day
but I heard it
in her laugh
the soft reverberations
of a breaking throat
She was collapsed beside a steeple
when I found her
I wondered if
God was inside
hiding
ashamed
atoning for her sins
Children entered Sterling
rode the elevator to the sixth floor
to watch the sunset
A couple took photos on the steps
commemorating a woman
they would never know
I never met her mother
only heard her voice
in oscillations
electrical signals
about the weather
the Bachelor
pregnancy in Jackson
She would leave
the next morning
enter
an empty home
she would play
her mother’s voice
on the turntable
fill the space
between static
she would sing along
rearranging the words
into infinite melodies
By Flora Ranis.
