not a one-off gesture of friendship

but an unbroken narrative in this connection.

A musical memorandum relayed over wi-fi,

earphones play envoy to a richness of bourbon,

tornadoes, and the possibility of a different life.

I read those poetries like missives fetched in the night,

cloaked and riding on the backs of basslines.

This is a buying of flowers in the early hours

or a mistranslation into my language,

into what I feel he thinks we sound like,

into thoughts that encase me:

my daydreams have soundtracks.

He sends me a Spotify link

and we exist in those melodies,

evading who we’re expected to be

in other people’s worlds.

Louise Machen is a Mancunian poet and a graduate of The Centre for New Writing at The University of Manchester. Her poetry likes to explore relationships with people and the world. She has most recently appeared in The Olney Magazine, The Poetry Bus, and Afterfeather—an Anthology from Black Bough Poetry. You can find her eating Belgian waffles on Friday nights or, alternatively, on Twitter @LouLouMach.