Sorry — been meaning to reach out

Sorry — been meaning to reach out.

Six weeks. Seven words.

I set the phone face-down

and watched the glass.

One bead of water

worked its way down the pint

I ordered because the table

looked wrong with nothing on it.

It caught light off the muted TV,

dropped into the ring

already darkening the wood.

Condensation doesn't decide.

It just can't hold

what cold does to it.

I read the text again.

Same seven words. Same

small nothing

wearing an apology's clothes.

The glass went on sweating.

Honest the way only a thing

without a strategy is honest.

I left it on read.

The ring stayed on the wood

after I moved the glass — a mark

where something sat too long

and the surface took it

personally.