“I do my finest listening in the dark.
       My best friend has always been ink.”
           Aimee Nezhukumatathil

A stranger’s voice whispers words
I’ve never put together into my ear

and something inside me says yes.
Rhythm, cadence, vocabulary

evoke response. Words I’ve never
put together come together.

My finest listening commits itself
to ink, a tale I never would have told

if I hadn’t heard it echoed
in another poet’s words.