Electric Alchemist

Like some sweet whisper in the night

that curls up, swaddling itself

in my open ear;

like nipping at the heels of a fading dream

that slinks away daintily in

the afterglow of morning

wishing it could stay

even when we both know it can't,

smiling, a little sadly

but with a little fondness too,

as it goes and we both begin

to forget each others names;

this is how I know you.

The way your face slips so benevolent

and with a devilish smirk from

that looking glass computer monitor

into the space behind my eyelids;

the way your name chalks its hands

(it has excellent form),

leaves my little phone, takes point

on my tongue, and leaps;

it is old magic from long ago

activated by an ancient language

I was so sure I had forgotten.

I should really thank you for that.

I will practice all the time now.

I will write your name down

in pretended runes from long ago

on my phone and marvel

at the arcane mystery by which it goes

and conjures up some tableau of you.

I will inscribe your name

in painstaking calligraphy on my screen

creating your body with each curve

of every letter; I will machinate

your voice down to each

syllable and word from

the disparate electric slivers of

knowing you�"

I will transmute you into being before me, like

some desperate dreamer tripping

over himself trying to keep the vision from departing,

some crazed alchemist who hasn't yet found

the limits of his craft

and frankly makes no plans to meet.