Distant Language

the words I speak

don’t sound as good over the phone

you gotta hear them in person

you gotta hear them alone 

you gotta hear the tone 

and all the inflections 

map out the slick movement of my lips 

as they depart from each other to start dancing

the soft airless breath

I take before my lisp try to escape my

tongue twists and interrupts my train of thought

and run on sentence about

love, beauty and the after life 

Its not enough to just

guess what that feels like

or ask me to repeat them twice

over a cellular device 

You gotta hear them right

You gotta hear them in person

You gotta hear them alone