12:01 AM
I can hear the shine in your eyes
on the other end of the telephone.
When I speak like this,
I feel authentic
and not heavy.
I don’t have to tattoo meaning in the air
to know what you mean.
I remember when you first told me…
apropos of nothing…
about the different levels of charitable donation.
I was sitting right across from you — over there.
(You in that armchair, me in this one: our eyes.)
You said there’s the donor who gives large sums
and puts a placard on the wall, signifying
who it’s from;
and then there’s the other one who gives…
but remains anonymous.
Your words hanging like a phantom,
I didn’t have to be who I thought I was;
you were once me,
once where I was…
In that moment, I knew.
First published online in Al-Khemia Poetica. September 3, 2019
Author: Joshua Corwin
Los Angeles native Joshua Corwin is an emerging poet and a recent graduate from Pitzer College in Claremont, CA with a degree in Mathematics and a minor in Philosophy. He is published in SPECTRUM Vol. 20, Al-Khemia Poetica, Rattle’s Rattlecast #9 and #10, and forthcoming (April 2020) in poeticdiversity.
artist: Juan Cajigas
