Long Distance

Midway through, a haunted computer types its own questions:

“Would you like to meet a ghost?”

“Do you live to shovel sand or shovel sand to live?”

It’s the best part of the movie,

I think you’d like it.

There’s this melody one character hears after

in his head—it is the answer, we discover, to everything

not yet asked; a sort of dial tone

overtakes you with dread while you’re watching

him listen to a wind-blown curtain swell

into a cello or a pear-shaped person, illegibility’s the point

and also the mood. Or is it a vibe? I think moods

are for people with choices

and children—

Anyway the room’s crummy,

how was karaoke?

Will you call again later and sing it for me?