we left it all behind, the traffic, the internet; 
that’s what you said in the car.

we’re free! and won’t you look at the redwoods! 
you laughed and i laughed with you.

i said nothing of the way your fingers 
kept returning to your empty pocket, 

and that night there were too many ghosts 
hanging on our lips to invent new stories.

when i entered the lake, something in me 
grazed the moon, your reflection in the water.

across the way, your shoulders shivered. 
the paleness of your skin trembled in the dark. 

i watched the ripples come back to me, 
watched echoes of you pool around my waist.

were you cold? or was it 
a slow burn for you too?

**Phantom vibration syndrome or phantom ringing is the perception that one's mobile phone is vibrating or ringing, when in fact the telephone is not doing so. Other terms for this concept include ringxiety (a portmanteau of ring and anxiety) and fauxcellarm (a play on "false alarm"). According to Dr. Michael Rothberg, the term is not technically a syndrome, but is better characterised as a tactile hallucination since the brain perceives a sensation that is not present. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_vibration_syndrome>

[phantom vibration syndrome]

a poet in love with many muses, who hears the stars and names the fire to come.

an.