Norma Desmond

And I am too much, 
what’s the word, 
afraid?  

Afraid she’ll do 
something equal parts 
dangerous and stupid.  

I no longer ask about 
her ex-wife, the alcoholic.  
I don’t think she’s ever 
heard a word I’ve said.  

Not in the sense that 
we were ever having 
a conversation.  

When she texts, 
it begins with the words, 

Are you there?  
I am never there. 

Not in the sense that 
I would stop replying. 
But remember I am, 
what’s the word, 
afraid? 

Afraid she’ll do 
something dramatic, 
like Norma Desmond did 
to Joe in Sunset Boulevard.  

Something permanent.  
Also possibly involving 
bullets and a swimming pool.  

After that it’s 
fuzzy, like Joe, 
floating in the pool.    

My horoscope says I’m 
undergoing dramatic 
life changes, and obviously 
death is as dramatic as 
life changes get.

Are you there?  
I am never there.

I realized the other day 
that I have always been a 
Norma Desmond magnet.  

Because I self-identify 
with a dead writer 
named Joe.