FRANCIS HOUSE
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Errant


​              He pulls away to answer
                            his muzak-blaring phone. His alarm
spreads my grin. Not because
                                                        it’s the ringtone assigned to his son-in-law,



a conversation about running errands
              I track from his bed
                            draping my limbs across myself like a sculpture.



                            But because he keeps me his
              audience as he touches himself. He drags the argument out



              watching for my impatience to rise. His steady gaze
                            a reminder that
                                                        as an apparition, I own nothing



but my summons. This is not the poem for me
                                          to take his ring off with my teeth.



So polite, he apologizes for the interruption and curses his wife
              on my behalf.
                            I do not hate her, nor him, but



this shared boredom we know
              won’t resolve swapping breath
                                                        with another body. A tired slow dance.



              I dress; he strips
                                          the bed. A crumpled pile of our expired desires.
She will only smell the absence. One fewer item



​              on his list today. A boy’s whistle from his lips.

Lucas Wildner lives in Seattle, where he is repairing his relationships with English and German and... His debut chapbook, Fluency, will be published this summer from Ghost City Press. Forthcoming and recent work can be found at Ghost City Press, Pidgeonholes Magazine, Homology Lit, and elsewhere. On Twitter, sadly: @wucas_lildner.
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