RINGTONE

RINGTONE
from Pearl and Other Poems

me: Sometimes, when I wake up

in the night, I text myself poems

instead of going back to sleep.

Sent 5:49 AM on Thursday

me: I am lying in bed

and the birds are starting to sing.

My wife does not want me

to read her my poem

because she is asleep.

All the lights are out. I do not

understand why I am awake,

when the only light

is this thin soup trickling

through the blinds

and the birdsong

and this total meal of light

from the phone in front of my face

and the repeated icon

of my face beside each text

Sent at 5:58 AM on Thursday

me: Someone I don’t know

a hallway of homogeneous doors

of my repeated face

Sent at 6:00 AM on Thursday

me: I want to feel an emotion

I’m trying to decide which one:

Hungry

Thirsty

Lying here next to you.

Nothing seems quite right

Sent at 6:05 AM on Thursday

me: I will feel “push my face

into my pillow a little bit.”

My knee pops and my body

feels mildly feverish

like there is a thin layer 

of gingivitis running beneath

my skin.

Sent at 6:07 AM on Thursday

me: My body is bright and sore

My eyes are burning

and I am happy as I stumble

around the kitchen, fumbling

with stuff, not seeing a thing.

Sent at 6:27 AM on Thursday

me: There is a sore sense of

newness in my teeth

A cavity of something

brightly new

Sent at 6:29 AM on Thursday

me: I sit down Indian-style

on the kitchen floor

to contemplate this newness

Sent at 6:30 AM on Thursday

me: There is no clangor at all

in the world, except—

a little bell is ringing

Sent at 6:36 AM on Thursday

(c) 2014 lee sharks

from Pearl and Other Poems:
http://www.amazon.com/Pearl-Other-Poems-Crimson-Hexagon/dp/0692313079/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429895012&sr=8-1&keywords=lee+sharks+pearl