Perpetual Motion
by Stephen J. Golds
Over the line
you tell me you’re coming
over.
I hold the phone the way
I hold my tongue.
The way we use
each other up like kitchen
bleach
to cover the stains of
ourselves is always fun.
But it’s the silence of
the apartment after,
the bed seemingly
become too small,
the smell of your perfume
a hangover. Talking like
strangers
awkwardly sitting next to
each other
on a long bus ride.
I know the mole on the inside
of your thigh
but not
your sister’s name,
or your happiest memory
or
anything that might
matter.
You’re already
damaged it seems
so there’s not much for me to
do
with you except
use you the way you’re using
me.
And maybe that’s
okay.
I tell you to come over.
Holding the phone in my
hand
like it’s a heartbreak in
motion.
Stephen J. Golds was born in London, UK, but has lived in Japan for most
of his adult life. He enjoys spending time with his daughters, reading books,
traveling, boxing, and listening to old Soul LPs. His novels are Say
Goodbye When I’m Gone (Red Dog Press), Always the Dead (Close
to the Bone) Poems for Ghosts in Empty Tenement Windows, and the
forthcoming collection Love Like Bleeding Out With an Empty Gun in Your Hand.
W. Jack Savage is a retired
broadcaster and educator. He is the author of eight books including Imagination:
The Art of W. Jack Savage (wjacksavage.com). To date, more than fifty
of Jack’s short stories and over a thousand of his paintings and drawings have
been published worldwide. Jack and his wife Kathy live in Monrovia, California.
