truly everything i loved

tap tap telegraph
the girl wrote wire lines
straightened them with needled nosed pliers
wrote phrases round and useful like paperclips
sometimes curled and twisted like an electric tumbleweed
filled up hope and heart
tap tap telegraph
her anthems made in morse time
through the tremors wires shivered

and leaving like cold chills
the girl would find wire scars tapped tapped
into flesh words put into flesh
i've got to make this feeling down pin it down she said

(and above somewhere
there is a satellite that is buzzing
for feelings of electrons like bumblebees
and smiling smiling in sound waves
the satellite spins to direct its attention
and astronomers wonder what's caused
this sudden interest
what could have caused
this attraction)

there's a nest of syllables like magnets
wire framed and sharp
emphatic and unnerving
and sorted through, they make new elements
this is a love song she thought
and felt the electrodes glow and blush
i'm writing to you via telegraph
the wires sang
their melody was pure but faded, weary
with exhaustion
from the long, tired haul across
what seems like centuries

(the satellite winks in recognition)

who will find me and my hammered teeth
chewing out each word to the quick
like they were steel fingernails
she thought it and she thought it and she pushed her face against the window
where are my electrons going?
and she could see fireflies spark as though shot

tap tap telegraph
it spoke to her
it spoke back to her

(the satellite sighed for sight of a love story)

and she laid down on the floor near her speaking machine
felt the words come out in bursts, hesitate, burst again
there is kinship here
these words and i have a lot in common

and she swam in someone's brittle enumerations
and felt she knew exactly what they meant
without understanding a sound