All of my insides have turned to lightning.
My heart is a telephone. It is ringing music
from the future all the time! It is making
international calls in the middle
of the night. You say I have big plans for when
nobody expects us to make it. I go pull
the truck around. We load it with outrageous
ideas! We drive it around town like
a surprise factory stopping at all of
our friends’ apartments. It is so nice to be
unexpected. It is so nice to imagine
a hugging tour of America. Your brain is much
louder than even mine! You leave
these gorgeous voicemails while I sleep.

Wendy Xu is the author of the chapbook The Hero Poems (H_NGM_N BKS). Her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming in CutBank, Forklift Ohio, Diagram, Columbia Poetry Review, Third Coast, and elsewhere. She co-edits iO: A Journal of New American Poetry / iO Books, and lives in Northampton.

Nick Sturm is the author of the chapbook WHAT A TREMENDOUS TIME WE’RE HAVING! (iO Books, 2012). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Aesthetix, Dark Sky, Dinosaur Bees, Forklift, Ohio, Hayden’s Ferry, Jellyfish, Red Lightbulbs, and elsewhere. His reviews and interviews can be found widely in places like Coldfront, HTMLgiant, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. He is associate editor of YesYes Books and curator of THE BIG BIG MESS READING SERIES.