new message – poem by p chatelain

new message

i had a dream that i went to your doorstep unannounced. i sat there in the damp evening with my phone in hand, and sent you a text “are you home?”

upstairs you entertained another in your covers. your pillow vibrated and your hand swiped away the nuisance as your phone glimmered like the courage i’d gathered in my heart.

as pride built up in my diaphragm, your lips acquaint foreign hands, and another message from me weakly lit up the room, darkened by taunting passion.

this time, the light caught your eyes and diverted your attention. my name on that screen, for a moment, resembled a silent Times Square New Year’s, a second of anticipation

followed by immediate celebration. inevitably, the light shut off again and darkness resumed. but a familiar hand wandered apologetically to the ignored device.

the hand that had known me best, compelled to react upon habit, opened the phone and typed, “i’m not, sorry!” but for a moment realizing at the recipient’s name. mine.

the phone’s backlight dimmed as it judged you, begging you not to send the message. with a simple click it was gone, and seconds later, below, i was too.

Phillipe Chatelain

Author: Mr. Phillipe

Phillipe Martin Chatelain / @uptownvoice / Phillipe is the Managing Editor of In Parentheses. He is a poet from New York City with a Masters Degree in Poetry from The New School. He writes as someone in the tradition of the urban troubadour or the flaneur–wandering, taking notes. He believes that poetry of our generation has taken on a much more digital definition. Furthermore, it is important for New Modernist writers like those exhibited in In Parentheses Literary Magazine to assume the forms of media available in order to carry on the history of Sublime Art. His series taking shots alone was self-published in 2012-2015. The self-published collection FACETS (2019) is now available. View all posts by Mr. Phillipe