You can speak to them but there’s no indication, Mom, that they can hear you and certainly they can’t speak to me, Mom, not yet—if they did then in what language?
You go to touch and you touch right through them. Snug a breast and end up feeling up a boulder, flick a lip and end rubbing tongue against a sill.
They just hover, Mom, amongst their daily tasks—gathering water they won’t drink, steaming suppers they cannot eat, but I can.
I am sustained, they take good care, don’t worry.
I’ve even stopped asking after Moc.
I’m sure, one day, I’ll notice her appearance. As a shadow’s missing features. As faced light thrown across a wall that is not home’s.
Your message has been sent.
My message has been sent.
Links
_________________
Emission
abajournal.com/news/article/paralegal_sues_over_herpes_web_post/
McDonald’s
mcdonalds.com/us/en/food.html
The College Borough
pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/79001603.pdf
Sent
iafd.com/person.rme/perfid=RRosenberg/gender=m/Robert-Rosenberg.htm
Joshua Cohen was born in 1980 in New Jersey. He is the author of five previous books, including Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin Concerto, A Heaven of Others, and Witz. His nonfiction has appeared in Bookforum, the Forward, Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, and other publications. He lives in New York City.
Book design by Ann Sudmeier. Composition by BookMobile Design and Publishing Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Manufactured by Versa Press on acid-free 30 percent postconsumer wastepaper.
Table of Contents
Cover
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright
Contents
Emission
McDonald’s
The College Borough
Sent
About the Author
Four New Messages Page 17
