Long Distance
Midway through, a haunted computer types its own questions:
“Would you like to meet a ghost?”
“Do you live to shovel sand or shovel sand to live?”
It’s the best part of the movie,
I think you’d like it.
There’s this melody one character hears after
in his head—it is the answer, we discover, to everything
not yet asked; a sort of dial tone
overtakes you with dread while you’re watching
him listen to a wind-blown curtain swell
into a cello or a pear-shaped person, illegibility’s the point
and also the mood. Or is it a vibe? I think moods
are for people with choices
and children—
Anyway the room’s crummy,
how was karaoke?
Will you call again later and sing it for me?
