(for Sony WM-D6C, b.1982)

ohgod(yourplasticcradle    cradles  
        my earbones)  
            like moons hum-bent on  
                        bleeding symphony—

i unlatch  
       your orange foam silence  
                    (click)—
              and all my inside-shadows  
      reverse     direction—

    tell me again how  
  side B  
             aches so slowly.  

                (spool me, boy)

      —my tongue a wiretap  
         to your cassette soul  
      magneticmurmur-melting  
              where my pulse = ferroxide (™)

                           (does the chrome remember?)

         i DO.  
                    & you  
                  (your belly-button = play)  
               & me  
          (my softwound = record)

        in          synchro-   synchro-    
                    whispermode    you    
         ­              feed my  
              dirtystatic    

like  
a  
secret  
        n­ot meant for  
                        humans

(i         rewind myself  
        into your guts—)

                      stop.  
          [pause]     fingerrested  
        on your orange HALO dial  

             —is this lust or  
                         stereo calibration?

   (i **** in A440, you moan in dolbyC)

ohwalkman,  
    my little electric priest,  
               absolve me:  
                 i fastforward
                 into you  
            until          hiss.  

& we  

(                      eject  
      like lovers
                  never recorded  
                                but always  
                                              replayed).­

I have your (our) CD on my walkman
It's playing
all our fears and regrets
all our promises and dreams
It's playing the past
before people left
before we left
before everything
started to change.