Raymond Records

I know the title of this post doesn't make sense but oh well. Just wanted to share a draft to a poem I recently wrote for my brother.

Late Night without My Brother

We spent an hour crisscrossing
duct tape across windowpanes,
crucified a thick, woven rug
like a man suspended in pain.
We barred the entrances,
filled ice-trays and coolers
with tap water and hope.
You didn’t have to stay;
I was fine being alone.
Fan dusty with cobwebs
spinning in the air, the howling
trees scratching the door,
the metal railings riddled and neighbors
vomiting outside—this would have
been fine, alone. But silent moments,
the ones like now, the sound of my
cigarette burning to ash,
sound of a hard drive purring
and a phone cradled in muteness:
I miss that laughter that is your own,
the one that occupies space,
like a coiled snake
hushed beneath gravel.