June 26th by Jason McKinley Williams

179 Replies

From across the table,
I see my friend’s brow furrowed
when he hears the plane was delayed,
so his loved one checks into at a hotel hours away.
He promises to get the dogs their meds.
Says he’ll text before he goes to bed,
ends with “Be safe. I love you, too.”

He presses the red “End Call” button
which shifts to gray,
triggers the familiar result:
the warmth bubbling up your throat,
across your cheeks.
The damp cloth laid across your chest.

The feeling is the sum of love and separation–
or maybe the product of those two instead.
But whatever the calculation.
whether between my wife and me
or his partner and him
there’s no adjustment, coefficient, or calibration.
It is the self-same math.

-Jason McKinley Williams

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