MAX HEADROOM, in MIDLIFE, DROPS DOUBTFUL KNOWLEDGE on his SON

by Susan Comninos

From Fall 2016

 Maybe there'll be nothing left —
 maybe there won't be. A tic feels
  
 more real than the body,
 the head looks more whole
  
 than the whole. Blank sheets
 of rain slick a torso of snow,
  
 wet stitches the ground above
 ground. It's grand, how music
  
 splayed in arcs, from cave to mp3
 to I don't know. I stopped caring
  
 with college. Time rolls: in waves (soldiers
 of fortune, but distracted — furious
  
 with boredom). Attention's a lapse,
 it lacks focus. See
  
 how slowly the sun dials back
 its hot face, at our frowns? Don't
  
 stop dissing puffs of clouds:
 Who are they to talk-talk
  
 like ghosts of gassed-up whimsy?
 The air is dozing. Wake it
 
 with a needled presence, your
 nattering voice. Unhook an earpiece,
  
 throw me the tatters of your banter.
 H-h-here is the hear that you've longed for.