summer shower

next door, long distance
summer kills in little deaths
heat is murder
ring tones like rhinestones

playing touch phone tag
long after bedtime
undercover siren singing
“Let it ring once,
I’ll call you right back.”

conversations like cyclones
weeks cradling handsets
pressing flesh to plastic
loving dial tones
playing a music of discovery

then,

waiting, like melting butter
“ok, I love you.”
a rain, see you next fall
sky like plaster and sandpaper
cigarette colored clouds
ash on the horizon

our tepid voices
halting and faltering
halt and fault
stammer our goodbyes
all is not resolved
I hear a pin drop,
raindrop, teardrop

it was the last call.