And some words played between us to and fro

——————Thomas Hardy, “Neutral Tones”

 

Her British husband messages from Maine:
I need more time 2 think. It’s peaceful here.
She writes back with an auto-translate text
from Mandarin: You’ll always be my leader.
She knows the words—but what do they really mean?
“His tone?” I ask. She scans her English reader.
“Neutral,” I say. She asks what to write next.
I hear my flight announced and drain my beer.
“I’m sorry, sir,” she says, dropping her phone
as she unsnaps her wallet’s clasp: “How much?”
Leaning so close to me our elbows touch,
she knocks a duffle from her baggage carriage.
I pack my paperback. “Please, sir, my marriage.”
Her nails click as she googles neutral tone.

 

 

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Brian Brodeur is the author of four poetry books, most recently Some Problems with Autobiography (New Criterion Poetry Prize). Recent poems and criticism appear in Hopkins Review, Literary Matters, Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Writer’s Chronicle.

 

 

Photo by Briana Tozour on Unsplash