vn vrchive

by roxane beth johnson i am so often alone these days with echoes of these old songs

                                                          and my ghosted lovers.

i am so often alone that i can almost hear it, can almost feel

                                                        the half-touch of others,

can almost taste the licked clean spine of the melody i’ve lost.

  i remember the records rubbed with static and the needle

                                                                     gathering dust.

i remember the taste of a mouth so sudden and still cold from

                                                                         wintry gusts.

it seemed incredible then — a favorite song, a love found.

                                                                it wasn't, after all.

days later, while vacuuming, the lyrics come without thinking.

days later, i think i see my old lover in a café but don’t,

                                                                        how pleasing