Four New Messages

  You can speak to them but there’s no indication, Mom, that they can hear you and certainly they can’t speak to me, Mom, not yet—if they did then in what language?

  You go to touch and you touch right through them. Snug a breast and end up feeling up a boulder, flick a lip and end rubbing tongue against a sill.

  They just hover, Mom, amongst their daily tasks—gathering water they won’t drink, steaming suppers they cannot eat, but I can.

  I am sustained, they take good care, don’t worry.

  I’ve even stopped asking after Moc.

  I’m sure, one day, I’ll notice her appearance. As a shadow’s missing features. As faced light thrown across a wall that is not home’s.

  Your message has been sent.

  My message has been sent.

  Links

  _________________

  Emission

  abajournal.com/news/article/paralegal_sues_over_herpes_web_post/

  McDonald’s

  mcdonalds.com/us/en/food.html

  The College Borough

  pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NHLS/Text/79001603.pdf

  Sent

  iafd.com/person.rme/perfid=RRosenberg/gender=m/Robert-Rosenberg.htm

  Joshua Cohen was born in 1980 in New Jersey. He is the author of five previous books, including Cadenza for the Schneidermann Violin Concerto, A Heaven of Others, and Witz. His nonfiction has appeared in Bookforum, the Forward, Harper’s Magazine, the New York Times, and other publications. He lives in New York City.

  Book design by Ann Sudmeier. Composition by BookMobile Design and Publishing Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Manufactured by Versa Press on acid-free 30 percent postconsumer wastepaper.

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Half Title Page

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Contents

  Emission

  McDonald’s

  The College Borough

  Sent

  About the Author