grow fonder, or so is said,
but I’ve learned it as distance
makes the heart forget us–
the equation is miles plus
time equals a greater radius,
as between words dangling
on a phone line, or inflections
slung from mouths through
the atmosphere onto a satellite,
far removed from its origin,
home now absolute zero, cosmos
cold and steel, this floating coffin
a language of longing, your voice
massaging my eardrums through
silence
(originally published in Academy of the Heart and Mind, Fall 2019)