Untrue in Headphones
Madeline Johnston, Kyle Bates
To hold ambiguity
In dreams diverging
On that Amtrak
In the Northeast
I’d opened up
Just long enough
For your flash flood
To overflow
The endless river
I’d fallen into
For a second time that year
Now I flow
In the abstraction of memory:
Gin in the bathroom
Untrue in headphones
Trying to fall asleep
I’d completely lost my mystery—
I’d been seen—
When you asked
“Do you really think you know me?”
You stated sternly
“We are not the same.”
So let’s lean against this world
Pushing different ways
We’ll ask
“Do you really think you know?”