Bombs Away!

Written by: Homer Wolfe

Maybe you left.
Maybe you got left.
Maybe both of you left. Diverged.
Point is: the damage is mutual.
But you can minimize it through insipidity;
I’m going to tell you how.

I moved across town in 1998.
I moved across state in 2000.
I moved across the country in 2003.
I moved across the ocean in 2005.
I moved back* in 2008.

People I once deeply connected with still call.
We talk. About important things.
Ever hear a recording of Edison from the late 1800s?
It’s like that, emotion-wise.

The times I felt connected mostly involve really vapid conversation.
I don’t really remember what the conversations were about.
And it really doesn’t matter.
It’s all just gestures.
Infants handing each other a toy.  Or anything, really.
Back and forth.

To make a long story short**:
Mari and I play board games through the mail.
Really mindless ones.
Play them really slowly.
We’ve been playing one game of Battleship for three years, come February.
Twenty-two moves so far.

The postcards never say much, other than the move.
And maybe a curse word or two.
Nothing important.
Back and forth.
This feels good, and it helps.

——————————————————————–
*You can never go back.
**We played Clue for a year.  I forgot who won

Homer Wolfe currently maintains a blog on Quantum Diaries; a
collection of personal blogs written by scientists from around the
world who work at the energy, intensity and cosmic frontiers of
particle physics.