mmmmdccclix

Ears Burning

                                                                     Now,
     what was I telling you?  You’re telling me.
                                 —John Ashbery

Someone’s dumb tongue has once again
come completely undone is what I’m
always thinking.  For a while now.  Maybe
a dozen or so years.  It’s not a good place

to be stuck on repeat.  Even though the
grooves do soothe on occasion, the slip
of the needle back into the same circle
has its own particular beat that is at odds

with whatever’s stuck being played in a
loop.  The white noise echoing through my
nearly empty head in the middle of the night,
or whenever it is I wake up and just stare

into the darkness for however long until
somehow I’m moved back into a dream state.