I Said Your Name

After a long night on the freeway,
we started the new morning at a diner.
I said your phone into my phone.
We’d never been here.

Peter and I’d ordered food and I’d
excused myself and was in the bathroom.
I’ve become addicted
to saying things into my phone, so I thought if anything
it was something I could put to good use.

The walls and floors of the bathroom were tiled and clean,
and a breeze drifted in from a window that was little
and up high so no one could see inside.
The lighting was not too overhead annoying
or yellow or zapped-out white. I was enjoying
the sound of my voice and the feel of the phone
in my palm, the phone lying there like a seashell on a beach.

I was recording “I think about you, Jack.”
This one was my three thousand
and forty-second recording. They add up fast.
Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t,
but most of the time I save them for later. You can only work
with so many at a time which is true
of almost anything in life. Every Sunday night
I transfer my recordings to a hard drive. I grew up
listening to Laurie Anderson, and I’m no original.
Peter was waiting for me
in the booth with coffee, pancakes, and links.

Moons over exits,
summer woke up as fall, and one time a while ago
Peter and I found ourselves in Savannah. We saw the Forrest Gump
character our first weekend. He favors
Tom Hanks and sits on the bench in identical clothes,
and it takes me back like it would
take anyone who’s seen the movie. I can’t help but
wonder what the man does after he’s spent
all day being Tom Hanks being Forrest Gump.
That’s a lot of being. Maybe he just goes home.
I would. What else could you do? We
settled in California.

Peter is especially fond
of the pizza place where you can eat
on the tiny sidewalk and drink beer and watch people
in convertibles, on motorcycles, in cowboy boots, under hats.

There is a radio playing somewhere nearby, Jack,
and I want to hear what I’m trying to
make out and can’t.
I’m going out to the balcony now.

—

This post was previously published on Medium.

***

You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project

Compliments Men Want to Hear More Often

Relationships Aren’t Easy, But They’re Worth It

The One Thing Men Want More Than Sex

..A Man’s Kiss Tells You Everything