Lump Sum

It’s not like I’m her possession. I wasn’t planning any of this.

How did I get here? A lump sitting in this little cube, waiting to lift the telephone receiver on the glass wall separating us?

Her face looks bright and excited opposite me, even through Plexiglass scratches and grime.

Will she believe that my accommodation, this dank, dreary county jail, ran a loneliness through me like a broken power-line sparking voltage along a downed tree? That the pretty blonde stranger’s lips stealthily advanced comfort to mine in the dark?

That my fall was one – tiny—increment—at a time…?