"NEXT TIME I WILL LISTEN BETTER"

The last time we were together

in your brown leather chair

I traced your watch as you talked.

I loved the width

and the way the metal circle blended

into your skin.

I studied the style of the numbers

so the gold slashes could be

more easily imagined on a day like today.

I am glad when I saw you last

my nails were long and pastel,

framed in your baked-wheat hands,

the picture is easy to recall

even now, in the dark.

Next time we are together,

I will listen better, especially

if you will tell me again

about the times you lay

under trees

with legs and arms stretched

against the earth.

I think I heard you say

that you pull strength and direction

from the ground, but

I was busy studying the lines

of our fingers and realizing

they were so much like our paths,

curving near but never crossing

where they should.

.

Next time

we are together in your brown leather chair

I will listen better.

By
Kaylan Jordan

Kaylan Jordan is busy being a mom, fine-tuning her midlife crisis, and running a business in Oklahoma, but she chooses to vacation and write in her villa just outside of reality.