The phone was on the floor charging

The phone was on the floor charging,

forgotten for a year,

and when it woke it showed me a face—

mine, 2011, at Darren's going-away party

for a job that closed by March anyway.

The bangs were wrong. Not a little.

Wrong the way a joke lands

a full second too late

and everyone's already moved on.

The woman at the salon said it would grow out.

She was right.

By spring, by whatever year it was

I stopped counting the months

between bad decisions.

I ran into Marcus at the pharmacy today.

He said I looked great.

Then paused.

I know that pause.

It is the pause of someone who also

remembers.